from beneath the massive stones of a ruined temple; hissing and spitting as huge blocks of masonry barred the progress of this fountain of the Barada, one of the sources of the river of Damascus, the Abana.

Sometimes the valley was wide, affording space for gardens, then it narrowed to form a gorge; again it changed for forest growth, as if nature had desired to satisfy the wants of all. We pushed on, after a rest beside the foaming stream, as the sun seemed inclined to disappear, and as yet we had no particular place to sleep. It did not matter very much, as my companion and I carried all our baggage with us (our small guide left us when we first entered the Wady), and we were in no danger of being pulled up for "sleeping out." We had spent many a night together under the deep blue sky.

At last we reached a khan, a roadside inn, where one finds no beverage stronger than coffee, and very poor accommodation. There we put up our horses for the night; the company in an Eastern caravanserai being varied, and of a character too much inclined for intimate acquaintance to suit the comfort of sensitive people who do not care for much attention of that sort. Fleas are nothing in the singular, but tribes and nations can occupy a good deal of space. Being tired, we ate a hearty supper and slept comfortably in the open air, with saddle-bags for pillows, under the shadow of the hill on which is built the traditional tomb of Abel.

warded, for as soon as one black combatant rolled on its back, the other commenced to scratch up the earth until there was a hole big enough to hide its enemy and its crime. Cain no longer sighed in sad despair, but set to work in haste to put beneath the ground the burden that had become so heavy, while he had grown so weary with his load.

We rode off before breakfast, with our hands full of a pennyworth of grapes that had been purchased the night before, past Suk el Wady Barada, ancient Abila, through a narrow gorge with beetling crags jutting from a precipitous side. One of the two life-giving streams of Damascus was still in company with us, flowing in the opposite direction to the road we were taking. We watched it on our left hand, saw it falling down the side of a hill from its source in the basin above. This river that, strengthened by the fountain of Ain Fijeh, transforms a desert into a smiling garden, early begins its useful career, turning a cornmill by its descending water before it runs to give new life along its course. After taking a permanent picture of it with a camera, we rode through some green lanes with English-looking hedgerows filled with blackberries, to Zebdany and breakfast.

The course of our journey led us along some very pleasant valleys to Yafoofeh. From thence we ascended the mountains to the Beka'a, the plain that separates the Lebanon from the Anti Lebanon, which, according to local names and the information of the natives, seems to have been the happy hunting-ground of ancient Nimrod and the residence of other primeval men.

Having swallowed Cain's little history, we were quite prepared for anything else, when lo! we arrived at

lage of old Seth, the son of our common ancestor Adam. There could be no doubt, of course, as his tomb was shown to us.

We now began to feel tired and longed for the night, which was evi

dently coming in a hurry. So often had we been told that we should reach our destination by sundown that we, being ignorant of the way, were only too pleased to believe it. But the mountains on our left hid the sun from us before we had ridden far past Abou Sheet, and left us to stumble along in the darkness. I should find it very difficult to state on oath how many villages we passed. We seemed either to ride round one or to meet quite dozen. They differ very much from an English hamlet; even when invisible their position is recognized by the sense of smell.

a

I called next morning on the Kaimakam, who was not so pleased with my letter as I should have liked. After a little delay he sent a soldier with me to see that I did not put any of the ruins in my pocket, a wise precaution. For how many pieces of carving now repose as paper weights in America, and perhaps in England, it would not be possible to say, but if the story told by the watchmen in charge of the "ancient glories" can be credited, there must be thousands. The Acropolis, he assured me, had often been turned into a shooting gallery by men with revolvers, who were able to disfigure the ornamentation of the cornices and capitals, even if they could not knock off some pieces to stow away in their baggage for exhibition at home.

Before availing myself of the opportunity for photographing the temples, I thought it would be as well to view the quarry from whence the stones had been taken for building them, and thus begin at the beginning as it were.

One stone is still there, left behind, where it will doubtless remain, as it would require the combined strength of forty thousand men to move it-so says M. De Sauley. It had been carefully cut ready for fixing in position, perhaps for a new wall, the stones in the original structure, some of which may be seen in the outer wall sixtythree feet and sixty-four feet long, and fourteen feet thick, being insufficient in size for the big ideas of the Phoenician builders. But how they could move a solid mass seventy-three feet long, fifteen feet wide, and thirteen feet thick is more than any eminent engineer of our own day has been able to tell us. And yet stones of these proportions were actually built in the wall of the old temple. This was to me an introduction to what was to follow.

Without entering into particulars already familiar, I will continue my walk from the quarry to the wall that surrounds the Acropolis, locally known as El Kelât, the fortress.

No one seems to know much about the origin of the place except Arabic historians, who assert that "after the flood had overwhelmed all the earth and changed its surface, it destroyed also the great building of Baalbec, the only refuge of Cain. And when Nimrod ruled over Lebanon he sent giants to rebuild the fortress of Baalbec." Thus it is pretty old.

We need not, however, go beyond the age of Phoenician prosperity for the builders who erected the Temple of Baal.

From the time when their kings were in power to the decline of the Roman empire, or rather to the advent of Constantine the Great, Baalbec continued to be entirely in the hands of an idolatrous people. When the power of hoenicia waned and Grecian influence prevailed in the country under the rule of the Seleucidæ, its name was changed from Baalbec or Baal Gad to Heliopolis, the city of the Sun, and more gods were worshipped.

The Romans followed, adding more buildings to more deities, until Antoninus Pius in the second century

erected the Temples of the Sun and of Jupiter, the remains of which are the chief attraction that Baalbec now offers to the sightseer. There are also several other buildings, such as a small Temple of Venus and a large Christian church near by, and a less important structure some distance off. The most important building originally, has the least in amount to show for itself. Six columns only remain of the Temple of the Sun, out of fiftyeight that once surrounded the building, whose dimensions were two hundred and ninety feet from east to west, and one hundred and sixty feet from north to south. Considered separately, these are surpassed by four at Bosrah in Bashan in beauty of execution, though they are less in height, being forty-five feet, whereas the Corinthian columns of the Temple of the Sun are seventy-five feet, including pedestal and capital.

The Temple of Jupiter is much more perfect; indeed, there is no edifice in the country so well preserved that carries its origin back through so many years. It was enclosed by forty-six columns, of which ten fluted ones were found in the vestibule. Above the columns there is a very richly ornamented entablature. The distance between the columns and still more magnificent cornice of the peristyle and the wall of the cella is three yards. The entablature is joined to the cella by a beautiful ceiling divided into hexagons and lozenges alternately, with figured centre pieces representing gods and goddesses encompassed by smaller ones and garlands of flowers, carved in relief.

After wandering over the courts and gazing at the buildings, I openly expressed my admiration for the exquisite and ornate decoration, when my guide, the guardian, told me there were many more handsome figures to We seen in recent years, but all that Avere not mutilated had been carried ff to European museums. This did

not lessen my pleasure in those around me, as there was more ornamentation left than I could attempt to describe in this short paper.

One inscription I noticed in Greek at the foot of a statue was, "Julia be happy." Here was food for thought indeed.

Happiness was not a universal product of what I am afraid were the bad old days. At one period the inhabitants were accustomed to sacrifice three negroes at every feast of Venus. But even this was a time of rest and quietness compared with a later date. The persecution of Christians was to the worshippers of this favored goddess their principal recreation. One Cyril had been the leader in the crusade against idolatry when Constantine was turning temples into churches, or levelling them to the ground. The opportunity offered by the accession of his heathen successor, Julian the Apostate, was eagerly seized by certain fierce spirits who disliked the restraint of Christian Worship, and according to the local historian, "had much spite against Cyril, and with great enmity resolved to put him to death. They opened his stomach, took out his liver, and devoured it while it was still throbbing." Truly a gruesome business, and one not calculated to impress a visitor with the loving kindness and amiability of former residents.

A later record of the people is more comfortable reading; the occupation of the Arabs and their subsequent history being brim full of stirring events, of brave deeds and patient endurance.

But other objects await the visitorstreams of crystal water; picturesque scenery; green meadows (in summer a rare treat); a fine avenue of willows, on which the eyes may rest refreshed after the sun-glare on blocks of stone.

We enjoyed ourselves for a time in Baalbec, and then went further afield.

G. ROBINSON DEES, B.A.

From The Gentleman's Magazine. A FIGHT FOR LIFE.

Naturalists often see strange sights and enjoy curious experiences, even in England. I have heard the "hedgepig" grunt, and watched him in the dusk walk fearlessly to my feet before detecting the presence of a possible enemy, but who, needless to say, did not even frighten it. I have all but trodden on an otter concealed in a dry ditch, and seen the dormouse like a miniature squirrel quietly eating nuts in a hazel copse. Το take another family-weasels. I have watched a weasel-mother lead out her young ones from a hollow tree and teach them to hunt for their food along the edge of a brook, much as a tigress teaches her cubs how to kill. If I never caught a weasel asleep, I have seen one pull the tail out of a water-hen, which only just dropped into the water off the bank before the disappointed and bloodthirsty pursuer could seize it. A weasel has even attacked me because I rescued a skylark from its clutches, and has returned again and again to its prey while in my hand. The following incident, however, well illustrates the cunning and persistent ferocity of the weasel, than which a more destructive animal scarcely ranges country districts. It is not, indeed, so bloodthirsty as the polecat, which kills for the mere sake of killing; but it is fiercer and more ready to act on the aggressive, and at times loses that instinctive fear of man which more or less actuates all animals. Should any one doubt the possibility of the following adventure, he may be referred to Jefferies's "Gamekeeper at Home," p. 121, and to several notices of the weasel's ferocity which have appeared in the Field newspaper. When it is remembered that in India the little wild jungle-dogs will contrive to kill the lordly tiger by hunting it in a pack and surrounding it, till, unable to obtain food, it perishes miserably by starvation; it is no wonder that when numbers give confidence, the weasel, insignificant enough by itself, will dare to attack even man, the lord of all.

was walking quietly through a wood

and had almost gained the farther side -in fact, I was walking up a dry ditch which was itself bounded by the hedge -when I heard a rustling in front. Halting at once I saw a rabbit, seemingly fascinated, in the ditch gently running towards me. At once I guessed the cause of this unusual proceedingthat a weasel was pursuing the rabbit. On it came, not in the least caring for man, its greater foe, but pushing past me with scared eyes far more terrified at the weasel which was behind. At that moment, with its head right up in the air sniffing the rabbit's scent, the weasel appeared some twenty yards before me, also in the ditch. The rabbit when once it had passed me seemed to shake off its curious trance and terror, darted through the hedge and ran nimbly over the grass field beyond. Raising my stick, I advanced towards the bloodthirsty little creature, which slowly gave way and ran back through the herbage. I pressed on, and was astonished at a turn to find the weasel standing still, its hair bristling, its tail waving like that of an angry cat, and now reinforced by a second, which also looked extremely unamiable. I was miserably hampered by trees and bushes on each side, and determined to get out of the ditch in case my little enemies should attack me. An old willow bent over my head from the hedge, and I jumped up, caught a branch and pulled myself towards the trunk by it, scrambling thence to a larger bough which extended over the hedge, and intending to drop in the field beyond. But I looked at my enemies before dropping, and saw them reinforced by three more, and all had scented me and were approaching with fury in their demeanor to assail me in my friendly tree. Clearly it was best to remain where I was for a minute or two and let them pass on. This, however, was farthest from their thoughts. Baffled by their smaller victim, they had made up their mind in their frenzy to attack me, and soon they advanced to the tree, and while two proceeded to climb up, the others rushed at the hedge and commenced to scramble up its