RECEIVING, on Monday, the joyful intelligence that Homer was out of danger, and that Mr. Aulick and Mr. Bedlow were on the way to rejoin us, I determined to remain no longer inactive; and, early on the 19th, started to lead the party over the Anti-Lebanon into the plain of Damascus.
Clambering diagonally up the mountain-side, which was beautifully terraced, and clothed with vineyards and olive and mulberry orchards, we passed two Druse villages, and a silk-mill, near a cave, which was filled with water, and contained crypts and sarcophagi. The cultivation gradually disappeared as we ascended, and was succeeded by dwarf oaks, with some large ones in the hollows, and in sheltered places; there were several streams trickling down the mountain side. Near the streams was some grass, and on their banks, and upon the mountain-slope, we observed the oleander, the convolvulus, the pink-flowered valerian, and the retem or broom-plant, the last covered with its straw-coloured and fragrant blossoms. The oak was succeeded by heath and fern, the last beautiful with its small, scarlet blossom; then succeeded lichens and moss, terminating in masses of limestone-rock, with boulders of quartz. We crossed, in a gorge (the Wistanee), between Mount Hermon and the next peak to the southward. The two crests were covered and many clefts on both sides filled with snow. From the summit, the country below, which had seemed so mountainous to the upward view, appeared an immense rolling plain. Far to the north-west, at the verge of the seeming plain, were the red sands, a dazzling line of gold separating the luxuriant green of the plain from the light azure of the far-stretching sea. Upon that line of sand, like clustering dots upon a chart, were the cities of Tyre, Sidon, and Beïrût. Another plain stretched, from the opposite side, south to the Hauran, and to the east until it was lost in the great desert. On the northern margin of that plain, but yet in the far distance, lay the city of Damascus, Es Sham (the Holy), embosomed in groves and meadows. We made an attempt to ascertain the height of Mount Hermon with our boiling-water apparatus, but the thermometer attached to it was not graduated sufficiently low. The summit is estimated to be about 9000 feet above the level of the sea, which is, perhaps, but little more than the actual height. As we ascended, we suffered from a stricture about the temples, but nearer the summit, the feeling passed away, and was succeeded by great nervous exhilaration.
We found snow some distance down the eastern slope; and the descent was gradual; but, from the nature of the road, very slow and excessively fatiguing. As we descended, the limestone rock disappeared, giving place to sand-stone and trap; and, lower down, serpentine occasionally cropped out. At ‘Ain Ennahad (Copper Fountain), the water was deeply impregnated with iron; the dry bed of one of its branches was coated with the yellow oxide of the same metal, and the rocks around bore marks of metallic corrosion. Near the base of the mountain, there was a profusion of wild roses.
The next day, the road led over a high, rolling plain, along the flank of the mountain, which, ribbed and capped with snow, formed a bleak barrier to the west. Ahead was a sea of verdure, which indicated the gardens around Damascus. There is an unfounded legend that Muhammed refused to enter that terrestrial paradise. Advancing into cultivation, there were patches of wheat and barley on the high ground; and in the ravines, groves of olives, figs, apricots, English walnuts, and some melons and cucumbers. The prevailing rock, a dark basalt, with metallic veins, and some quartz. As we proceeded, the number of villages increased, each with its girdle of vegetation; an oasis in the wide-spread and arid desert. Occasionally the wind, sweeping down the gorges of the mountains, would whirl the dust of the incinerated plain in circling eddies, high in air, very much like our waterspouts at sea. There were some camels moving about in search of food; but there were few people, and no birds or wild animals: — a long, dreary ride over the dry plain, under a burning sun. I had brought the party down from the mountain, where the air was too keen for our debilitated condition; — here there was a prospect of the other extreme, and that the weather would prove hot and relaxing.