are three of these at Deir el Kamr. They are all Greek Catholics, or Melchites.

SOUR.

On reaching Sour, we took a room in the GreekCatholic Convent, the state of which we were surprised to see; for only the upper rooms were occupied by a few Monks, while all the lower rooms round the Court-yard were occupied by families. In a School-room here, we counted seventy boys: they were, for the most part, learning in the Psalter: we sold several Arabic Psalters to them, but the price of the New Testament was above their means. The Greek-Catholic Bishop, formerly here, is dead.

Friday, Oct. 31, 1823-Early in the morning we walked out, to survey a little the aspect of this once far-famed city. Turning to our right, we came to the western part of it, and found a very large tract totally unoccupied by houses, where animals were grazing. It was skirted to the west by a wall: on looking over this to the sea beneath, we saw the breakers freely dashing over many a column prostrate among the rocks. This was the first memento of Tyrian Story which we beheld.

Going round to the left, we arrived at the ruins of the Greek Church noticed by Maundrell; and, climbing up the broken steps of the winding staircase in the turret to the top, we took a full view of the city and its neighbourhood. We first endeavoured to count the houses; which we estimated at about two hundred: but most of these consist of only one or two rooms: they are like huts, rather than houses; and very few had a second story. Interspersed among them are a few small gardens.

The houses appear to be rather new-a circumstance which accounts for the apparent discrepancy between this statement and that of Maundrell. He describes Tyre in his time, as containing "nothing but a mere Babel of broken walls, pillars, vaults, &c.; there being not so much as one entire house left. Its present inhabitants are only a few poor wretches, harbouring themselves in the vaults"-all which might very well be the case then, and yet it may have a different appearance now. It may be remarked, also, that the state of the season exceedingly influences our apprehensions of the condition of the poor towns of the Levant: if seen in bright dry weather like the present, their meanness is disguised; if viewed when wet, dirty, and cold, the rain often dripping through the roofs of the housesthe want of sensible comfort aggravates all the other disgusts of a European Traveller. It was in the month of March, A.D. 1696, that Maundrell visited Tyre. The narrow neck of land, eastward, by which the labours of Alexander connected Insular Tyre with the main-land, appears to be about a mile in width, from north to south: it is covered with sand. No trace appears of the line of the ancient channel. I have heard the wish expressed by a lover of Antiquarian Research, that he might have the privilege of digging in the sand here, to find helmets, spears, and other warlike memorials of Alexander: whether such an attempt has ever yet been made, I am unacquainted. Looking toward the sea, on the other side of the peninsular city, westward, we see a line of broken ledges of rocks running nearly north and south, as a kind of tangent to the projecting western extremity of Tyre: this line extends on the northern

side about a mile; on the southern, about a quarter of a mile. The Harbour of Modern Tyre is formed by the ledges on the north; through the intervals of which there are two or three passages for vessels of small size, as also an open passage to the north; from which quarter the harbour is, however, much exposed. The small space, partially sheltered by the ledges to the south of the city, does not appear to be used by vessels; but it occurred to me, as a point to be ascertained by those who shall hereafter have more leisure to explore the state of the place, whether, when Tyre was an island, ships might not, through the channel afterwards filled up by Alexander, shift from one side to the other of the city, so as to have a secure birth in every state of the wind and sea; which, at present, they cannot have. It is difficult to perceive in what way, otherwise, the great maritime concerns of this place could, in ancient times, have been maintained.

On leaving this Greek Church, we went to the water-side, accompanied by a Christian, an intelligent man, a native of Tyre; who had not dared to ascend with us the highest part of the ruined staircase, lest he should incur some penalty from the Turks. We took a boat for the purpose of observing the northern line of rocks; and of examining what traces of antiquity were to be discovered, in that which now constitutes the Harbour. There is, first, a very small inner cove, fit only for the admission of boats or small craft. Out of it we passed into the general Harbour, by a narrow channel. On: the eastern or land side of the Harbour, is a small ruined tower; surrounded, at its foot, by a great number of columns, scattered and thrown in every