344 Descripiion of Minerals from Pahsiine. 



been transported from some other quarter, to the place where 

 it was found. Judging from the other specimens, taken from 

 different parts of the mountain, ! conclude that the principal 

 ingredient in the formation of this lofty [)rotuberauce, so 

 well known to the ancients, and so celebrated in scriptural 

 poetry, is calcareous maitc This conchi>ion is corrobo- 

 rated by a remark of Bur( khardt, who asser s, that he had 

 visited the summit of Libanus, and disco ered that it " con- 

 sisted wholly of limestone, but it was chiefly primitive lime- 

 stone.'' He, however, informs us that he observed one 

 " fossil shell" on the top of the mountain. 



In the autumn of 1823, Mr. Fisk, accompanied by Mr. 

 Wolff, visited this lofty eminence ; on some parts r,f which 

 the snow continues through the hot season, undissolved. In 

 roughness, he found it altogether Alpine. I will give you 

 his own language '" We first ascended a very steep moun- 

 tain, and then descended one of the steepest I ever attempted 

 to pass. The road turns so often as nearly to double the 

 distance, and yet it is almost impassable We often crossed 

 narrow ways, with a stupendous precipice above us of im- 

 mense rocks, piled up almost perpendicularly, and a -imilar 

 one below us. ' In another place, he says, " at half past 

 nine, we left Tripoli, rode over a plain, and ascended the 

 mountains, tiil we reached a lofty «ummit. with a valley be- 

 fore us, which I cannot betier d .scribe, than by calling it a 

 frightful chasm in the earth. We dismounted, and descend- 

 ed literally by winding stairs, nearly to the bottom of the ra- 

 vine, and then, after various windings and gentle ascents 

 among the shrub oaks, we reached the convent Antonius, 

 situate on the side of an almo'^t perpendicular mountain " 



Mount Lebanon, bleak, wild, and precipitous as it is,, 

 contains a large population. The number of Christians 

 spread over it, is estimated at 100, or 150,000 who have. 

 Mr. F. supposes, 1 00 convents on the mountain. 



The ancient ornaments of Lebanon — the cedars — in pro- 

 curing which, for the building of the temple and of other 

 edifices, Solomon kept ten thousand men cnnstantly employ- 

 ed on the mountain, during a considerable period, have not 

 all disappeared. Oi-e grove of them still remains. Messrs, 

 Fisk and King examined them " They are situate" not 

 on the summit, but " at the foot of a high mountain, in what 

 may be considered as the arena of a vast amphitheatre, open- 

 ing to the W. with high mountains on the N. S. and E. The 



