that when once he had got into the garden he knew not how to get out of it. Up in the neighbouring mountains Mr. Barker had also established a plantation of potatoes and other vegetables requiring a colder climate, with complete success. He was thus not only indulging what Bacon calls "the purest of human pleasures," but bestowing a boon upon the country. Yet so deeply rooted were the indolence and apathy engendered by long habit, that when cuttings and seeds were given to the neighbouring peasantry, they seldom took the trouble of cultivating them. This luxuriance of production showed, at all events, what Syria once was, and what she might again be, under a government that should know how to stimulate, without crushing, as Mehemet Ali was then doing, the industrial energies of the people.

After breakfast, we mounted our horses, and rode over to see the ruins of Seleucia. This city, which bears the name of its founder, Seleucus, was the port of Antioch. When that city was in all its glory, so also was Seleucia; but, while the former

city still subsists, although in a degraded condition, the latter has fallen into irrecoverable ruin. We reached its remains through a wild tract, overgrown with myrtle and oleander, which

here flourish in the utmost luxuriance. The city stood on a plain stretching to the sea, backed by Mount Saint Cymon which served as its Necropolis; its precipitous cliffs being everywhere hewn into sepulchres, after the fashion of Petra, accessible only by flights of steps cut in the rock. Passing through a ruined gateway, we crossed the area of the city to the port, of which extensive remains may still be traced, sufficient to show that it was once capable of sheltering a considerable number of ships.

The sea was breaking desolately over its ruinous piers; and Mount Casius (upon whose top Julian sacrificed to the titulary deity of Antioch) lifted its magnificent cone in the background. Here, in the days of its former prosperity, when the harbour was crowded with shipping, and its temples hung with the votive offerings of grateful mariners, and the city alive with commerce, Paul embarked on his first missionary voyage to Cyprus; and here he landed and embarked again more than once during his numerous missionary journeys to and from Antioch. No spot on earth can now be more utterly desolate than Seleucia. That

68

EXCAVATIONS AT SELEUCIA.

it was formerly great and populous might well be seen from its tombs and ruins alone; but it was not until we visited its really wonderful excavations, forming, apparently, a convenient passage from the city down to the sea, that we could form any adequate idea of what the place once was. They are thus correctly described by Colonel Chesney:-" The first part of this extraordinary work is a hollow way of 600 feet long by 22 feet wide, and, in some places, about 120 feet high. The second is a regular square tunnel, 293 feet in length by 22 feet wide, and 24 feet high, which, like the preceding portion, is cut through a compact tertiary limestone. To the latter succeeds another hollow way, of 204 feet long by 22 feet wide, from the bottom of which, at the southern side, whilst the excavation itself descends more rapidly, a supply of water was carried along a channel of 18 feet wide, preserving the same level till it reached the exterior side of the hill, from whence it was carried southward into the city. In this portion of the work, which is 110 feet high, (represented in the engraving) a narrow staircase descends along the side of the rock, from the top of the excavation to within about 14 feet of the bottom, which, probably, was the ordinary level of the water in this part of the cut. Another tunnel, 102 feet in length, succeeds the latter portion of the work, and then a hollow way of 1,065 feet, the eastern part of which is crossed by a graceful aqueduct, supported by a single arch. In a recess near the opposite extremity of this, are some well-executed tombs, on the upper part of the rock; and a little onwards, the effects of time are apparent, in the water having forced a passage through the southern side of the excavation, from whence it proceeds, along a steep rocky descent, into the great basin. Thus far, the general direction is W.S.; but the excavation now sweeps gradually round, and at 322 feet northward, it is crossed by an arch, bearing some imperfect inscriptions. Finally, about 588 feet further, the hollow way, which is in this part 30 feet high by 17 feet wide, terminates abruptly,