'The Expedition for the survey of the rivers Euphrates and Tigris, carried on by order of the British government, in the years 1835, 1836, and 1837; preceded by geographical and historical notices of the regions situated between the rivers Nile and Indus. In four volumes. With fourteen maps and charts, and embellished with ninety-seven plates, besides numerous wood-cuts. Volume the first.' [‎385] (462/905)

chap. xvii.] the mountain passes.
385
rounded shoulders either protruding through forests of pines,
oaks, and larches, or diversified by the arbutus, the myrtle,
oleander, and other shrubs. Some basalt appears near Ayas,
and again, in larger masses at some little distance from the
N.E. side of the chain. The latter may be traversed at three
different places: the first pass is nearly opposite to the ex
tremity of the gulf; and by this it is probable that Darius,
after his defeat, fled from the plain of Issus towards the upper
pass of the Amanus. The second leads from the plains on
the eastern side to the port of Bayas, and, though moun
tainous and difficult, this was the ordinary route by which
the buffaloes of Muhammed Ali conveyed timber to be em
barked for Egypt. The third and easiest has a good roadj
which is carried up a moderately-steep ascent for three hours,
and then descends still more gradually to the plains on the
eastern side. Beilan, a pretty mountain-town of about 400
houses, stands just below the summit of the pass, which is
1584 feet above the Mediterranean, and it has the advantage
of being in a healthy situation within 9 miles of the port:
the latter may be seen at a short distance from the highest
houses.
Southward of Beilan the chain becomes remarkable for its Course of the
serrated sides and numerous summits, of which the Akma the Bay of
Tagh shows about fifteen between that place and the valley Antloch '
of the Orontes. The sharp ridge of diallage rocks, called
Jebel Kaiser^k or Rhoms, sweeps to the W.S.W., preserving
nearly the same elevation as the preceding part of the chain,
till its wooded slopes terminate with the rugged and serrated
peaks of Cape Khanzir, which, at an elevation of 5550 feet,
overhangs the sea, and separates the Gulf of Tskenderun from
the bay of Antioch. Again, a little way further southward
the Jebel Musa quits the south-western extremity of the Alma
Tagh, and from thence it skirts the northern basin of the
Orontes till it terminates above the ruins of the Syro-Mace-
donian Seleucia and the excavated slopes of Mons Pieria;—the
latter is connected with Cape Khanzir by a line of precipices
stretching along the coast. The pine-clad range of Jebel
Musa is of limestone, and may be considered as an outlying
vol, i.