344 LAODICEA-MOUNTAINS OF LEBANON. buildings. The environs seem to be extremely pretty, and abound with apricot and peach trees, mulberry, plantations, and vineyards. And now for another sentence as to the dark-leaved pomegranate, with its deep vermilion blossoms intertwining with its fairer neighbour the orange tree, and as to the stately poplar over which peeps the more stately minaret. The harbour called the port of Laodicea could once have contained six hundred vessels; but time, warfare, and earthquakes, by turning over the rocks and buildings, have filled it up so that not more than thirty vessels and a few feluccas can find protection there. The climate is naturally good, but the atmosphere is tainted from the filth of dead dogs and rotten fruit and vegetables unfit for market, so that Latakia has become the nucleus of pestilence. The road to Aleppo is mountainous. Neal states that Latakia, anciently Laodicea, was one of the seven churches; but this is a mistake. In this vicinity is presented the highest elevation of the mountains of Lebanon clear as a bell to the top, covered with the silver snow, and seen seaward to the distance of a hundred miles. This huge rampart shut up from our view Mesopotamia to the east and Armenia to the north, and the desert which extends to the Persian gulf. To my eye it seemed higher than either the Alps or the Apennines, reminding me rather of the snowy range of the sublime Sierra Nevada in Spain. This range runs without interruption from Alexandretto into Arabia. After opening a passage for the Orontes, it proceeds southward as far as the sources of the Jordan. Here it divides into two branches, and encloses, as it were in a capacious basin, the river and its three lakes. During its course it separates into branches, forms also enclosed GEOLOGICAL DISTRIBUTIONS. 345 hollows, such as that of Damascus, and advancing towards the sea, it ends in a steep declivity as at Carmel. Another branch, called the Anti-Libanus, verges in the direction of the Desert and the Euphrates. The rock is calcareous, of a whitish colour, and so hard that it rings when smartly struck with a hammer. The same description may be given of the mountains around Jerusalem which go down to the river Jordan, and westward and north to the plains of Jaffa and Acre. The rocks above the Dead Sea are of granite and other primitive formations. The effects of volcanoes are traceable along the banks of the lower Jordan; the warn springs in that district undoubtedly proceed from a similar cause. Sidon, Tyre, Beyrout, and the whole coast of Asia Minor, are often shaken with earthquakes. Lyell says these earthquakes alternate periodically with those in southern Italy, both being never visited at the same time. Here, again, is a subject of interesting investigation for the savans of Europe, were they to devote, through the aids of the Governments of England and France, only four months to the investigation. What a mass of geological information they would acquire! Antioch, at the mouth of the Orontes, is celebrated for having been the seat of some very calamitous earthquakes, famines, and pestilences. Gibbon says that in this capital of the East, "fashion was the only law, and pleasure the only pursuit; the arts of luxury were honoured, the serious and manly virtues were the subjects of ridicule; and the contempt for female modesty, and reverent age, announced its universal corruption." In modern times it may attain a more reputable distinction should a railway be constructed from the mouth of the Orontes over to the vale of the Euphrates and down to the head of the Persian Gulf. Antioch now is a ruinous town, with houses built of mud and straw one story high. The Christian faith found its way into this city at a very early period. A great proportion of the original inhabitants was composed of Jews. Multitudes of these would probably be at Jerusalem on the day of Pentecost when the Holy Spirit was poured out on the Apostles: and such of them as received the knowledge of salvation by means of Peter's sermon, would, on their return to Antioch, carry the glad tidings along with them, and communicate it also to others in that city. Again a great accession was made to the number of Christian converts in Antioch by the teaching of those that were driven from Jerusalem in consequence of the persecution which arose about Stephen. Of these it is said (Acts xi. 21.) "the hand of the Lord was with them; and a great number believed, and turned unto the Lord." But it was the chief glory of Antioch that in this city the Apostle Paul first erected the gospel standard to preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ. "Here he continued a whole year," assisted by Barnabas, "and taught much people." And here the disciples of Jesus were first denominated Christians. The Gospel continued to flourish at Antioch for the first three centuries in spite of all persecution. Nay, under the reign of the Emperor Theodosius, when paganism was prescribed by law, Gibbon says there were one hundred thousand persons in Antioch who professed the Christian faith, though that was only one fifth of its whole population. Nowadays, amid fifteen mosques to fifteen thousand inhabitants, there is only one Christian church. The ruins of the primitive Christian church in |