The Holy Land and the Bible; . ame a Drusevillage, of flat-roofed stone houses of one story, rising pleasantly upthe slope; the top of the mountain towering aloft 1,500 feet higher. At eleven in the forenoon we had been three hours climbing, but theair Avas still delightful, and great flocks of sheep and goats fed on betterl^asture than is common thousands of feet below. Two Druses tendeda flock, one of them carr^nng a gun, to protect his charge from thewild beasts of the mountains. The snowy top was soon just aboveus, to the north, perhaps 800 feet higher than our rough track. Theair grew per

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The Holy Land and the Bible; . ame a Drusevillage, of flat-roofed stone houses of one story, rising pleasantly upthe slope; the top of the mountain towering aloft 1, 500 feet higher. At eleven in the forenoon we had been three hours climbing, but theair Avas still delightful, and great flocks of sheep and goats fed on betterl^asture than is common thousands of feet below. Two Druses tendeda flock, one of them carr^nng a gun, to protect his charge from thewild beasts of the mountains. The snowy top was soon just aboveus, to the north, perhaps 800 feet higher than our rough track. Theair grew perceptibly cooler as we got nearer the snow of the hills, butit did not prevent life of all kinds from enjoying itself, for there was awhole chorus of crested larks as we rode on. We had now readied the 1 Some think tlio Druses partly Persian, and that their customs connect them with Media andTiirl<est;ni. It may be that they are not more republican than other Orientals altlioiigli highauthorities speak of tlieni as being so.. Street Barber ia Damascus. (See page G06.) XLIX.] THE LEBANON MOUNTAINS. 595 highest ]-)oint of the pass, and from this point the mountains changedtheir character. The onward traclv lay across the wide crater of anancient volcano, filled up with lava, and strewn thickly with it inmasses, in the form of basalt, but even here, cleared and fenced patches, bright with grain, were not infrequent. A man and a camel which herode were the only creatures that passed us as, after crossing the widestretch of lava, we rode over a nice little sandy plain, with good graz-ing. Two oak-trees relieved the monotony around, and then came alarge flock of sheep and goats, with a herd of sixteen horses, quietlygrazing. Basalt showed itself in manv places, but the limestoneheights through which it had once burst up in molten fire rose like afence round it on all sides, more or less far oft; the strata so undisturbedthat I almost fancied they had been deposited after the basalt