WE left Tripoli on the first instant, soon after mid-day, and, at eight in the evening, arrived at Patrone, the only place, within the compass of a day's journey from thence, where accommodations of any kind can be procured. The route is not distinguished by any features of striking interest, but has the recommendation of being carried in a regular progression almost entirely by the margin of the water.

About three or four miles on the northern side of Patrone, we entered a valley in the highest degree picturesque-such, indeed, as a writer of romance might delight to feign: the village, at its extremity, consists only of a few mouldering tenements, and we had some difficulty in finding room for ourselves and

baggage, which we at length contrived to deposit in the upper story of a ruined building, and passed the night without interruption.

We quitted our gloomy abode between six and seven the next morning, and, in the course of three hours, arrived at a town of some importance, called at present Gibile, but known formerly by the name of Byblus. Here we breakfasted, and were plentifully supplied with fruit of various kinds, cakes, and honey. Pursuing our route along the beach, we came in little more than an hour to a clear and rapid stream, rather shallow, but of considerable width: this is imagined, and with sufficient probability, to be the river called after Adonis. At certain seasons, the waters are tinged with a vermilion hue, arising from a stratum of red earth, particles of which are periodically washed by the violence of the rains into the current. The superstition of the ancients, unable or unwilling to account for an alteration of the surface by natural means, ascribed it to a sympathy on the part of the stream with the favourite of Venus; the catastrophe which occasioned his death having taken place in this district, as he pursued the chace over the mountains from whence the water issues.