å brisk stream, more than sufficient for the necessities of the place; yet it has been judged more convenient to supply it with water from Mount Libanus. For which purpose, they have united the mountain to the city by an aqueduct, whose principal arch, though now broken down, could not have been less than a hundred feet in diameter. This city was not known to the learned editor of the Itinerarium Hierosolymitanum; 'qui 'Arcas explicet et illustret (says he, p. 582.) alius ' erit.' Two leagues to the W. S. W. of Arca, we pass over the Nahar el Berd, the cold river, or, according to Mr Maundrell's interpretation, the cold waters. This stream arises from among the northern eminences of Mount Libanus; and swelling, at certain times of the summer, by the extraordinary liquefaction of the snow, might from thence have received its name. Here, I presume, we may fix the river Eleutherus, so much wanted in the old geography, which Sandys (p. 166.) and others after him, have made to be the same with the Cassimair, betwixt Sidon and Tyre. Whereas Ptolemy* places it, according to the present position of the Nahar el Berd, six miles to the northward of Tripoly, or in the latitude nearly In wherein I find it. In like manner, Strabo places Orthosia immediately after Eleutherus, and to the northward of it; agreeable whereunto we still find, upon the N. banks of this river, the ruins of a considerable city, whose adjacent district pays yearly to the Bashaws of Tripoly a tax of fifty dollars, by the name of Or-tosa. Peutinger's table also, Orthosia is placed thirty miles to the south of Antaradus, and twelve miles to the north of Tripoly. The situation of it likewise is further illustrated, by a medal of Antoninus Pius, struck at Orthosia; upon the reverse of which, we have the goddess Astarte treading upon a river. For this city was built upon a rising ground, on the northern banks of the river*, within half a furlong of the sea; and as the rugged eminences of Mount Libanus lie at a small distance, in a parallel with the shore, Orthosia must have been a place of the greatest importance, as it would have hereby the entire command of the road (the only one there is) betwixt Phoenice and the maritime parts of Syria. There is a remarkable circumstance in the natural history of the river Eleutherus, which may be a further proof of what I am contending for, viz. that the Nahar el Berd and the Eleutherus are the same river. For Pliny tells us, that at a certain season of the year, the Eleutherus is so full of tortoises, that they were easily taken. It is therefore probable, that, at the season here pointed at, there must be some particular quality in the *Strab. Geogr. 1. xvi. p. 1093. + Lib. ix. c. 10. the water of the Eleutherus, which engages them to frequent it more than any other of the neighbouring rivers. If the spring then should be the season here recorded, (and in the middle of April I found these animals had left the sea, and were retired within the banks of the Kishon), it is at this time that the snow begins to melt upon Mount Libanus. And as both the sources, and the whole course of the cold stream are from that mountain, the water of it must be much colder, and more impregnated with nitrous salts at this season than at another. If these qualities then should be agreeable to the tortoise, (for whether it were to copulate, or otherwise to refresh themselves, any other of the adjacent rivers would have equally served the purpose), the cold river would certainly have the preference; in as much as none of the others have the same relation to Mount Libanus; from whence alone these qualities could be derived. The mountains of Libanus, which, from Arca to the mouth of this river, lie in a W. S. W. direction, begin now to run parallel with the sea coast, at about a mile's distance; or else they stretch themselves out, in small promontories, into the sea. As there is hereby made a remarkable alteration in the face and disposition of the whole country, we have great reason to imagine, especially if proper regard is paid to the foregoing geographical circumstances, that the boundary was here fixed betwixt Syria and Phoenice. Mela (1. i. c. 4.) indeed places Simyra and Mara thus thus among the cities of Phoenice; whilst Stephanus by making Balanea, now Bannias, to be likewise a city of the same, extends this province into the very neighbourhood of Jebilee, which is contradictory to all geography. Even Pliny, notwithstanding he calls Simyra a city of ColeSyria; yet, by placing Marathus and Aradus, which are situated several leagues beyond it, to the N. in Phoenice, he is by no means consistent with himself. However, Ptolemy's authority is entirely in our favour; which is the more to be credited, as an old extract from Strabo*, and even Strabo himself seems to confirm it. For when the latter calls Marathus, os agxia Dovinar, an ancient city of the Phenicians, nothing more perhaps is meant, than that it originally belonged to the Phoenicians, before they were excluded by the Seleucidæ, and so became a part of Syria. And if this interpretation is admitted, then we may likewise account for the difficulties just now related, from Mela, Stephanus and Pliny; viz. that Phoenice might originally reach to the northward of the river Eleutherus; which was afterwards the fixed boundary betwixt it and Syria. About two leagues from the Nahar el Berd, are the ruins of Tripolis; which, being founded by the united interest of Aradus, Sidon and Tyret, might have been intended for a common * Chrys. ex Strab. Geogr. 1. xvi. p. 208. mart + Diod. Sic. 1. xvi. cap. 41. Scyl. Perip. edit. Huds. p. 41. Strab. 1. xvi. p. 519. Plin. 1. v. c. 20. mart to those three maritime powers. It is situ ated upon a low cape, called a peninsula by Scylax*, and has formerly enjoyed a large and safe harbour, though at present a few islands lying to the N. W. are the only shelter for vessels. There are no traces here, as far as I could observe, of any other walls than such as may be supposed to belong to one and the same city; which I take notice of, because some ancient geographers † have observed, that Tripoly was not one, but three cities, built at a furlong's distance from each other. That which is now known by the name of Tripoly, is at half a league's distance from the old, upon the declivity of a hill, that faces the sea. It enjoys a considerable trade, arising as well from its own manufactories in silk and cotton, as from those that are brought from Aleppo and Damascus. I could observe nothing in the city walls or castle, that could give either of them a title to a Greek or Roman foundation; the appearance of both being altogether modern and Gothic, not much earlier perhaps than the times of the Croisades. The greatest curiosity is an aqueduct, with its reservoirs, some of which are twenty or thirty feet high; and, by being placed at proper distances in the town, very conveniently supply the houses, to their second and third stories, with water. Over the Prince's Bridge, which is the chief arch of the aqueduct, there is * Scyl. Perip. ut supra. + Vid. Diod. ut supra. Pomp. Mela, 1.i. c. 12. an |