"كتيّب سوريا (بما في ذلك فلسطين). لندن: إدارة استخبارات الأركان البحرية، يونيو ١٩١٩" [و‎‎١‎٩‎٤] (٧٣٨/٣٩٢)

ANTI-LEBANON
381
district is the haunt of bears and wild swine. There are
several springs on the eastern slopes between J. Abu ’1-Hin
and Harf Ram el-Kabsh, notably ‘Ain edh-Dhura, a fine spring
used for irrigating grass fields in a well sheltered wadi. On
the slopes from ‘Asal el-Ward northward there is a series of
parallel detached ridges with trees and separated by
deep gorges running in a general direction S. of E. to the
plain, their drainage eventually feeding the waters of Yabrud.
The wadis are Bir Sahrij, Bir el-Washl, Zuweyyid, Batrah,
Za‘rur, and Bir el-Khashabeh. The latter rounds the base of
the hog-backed Nebi Baruh, alt. 7,900 ft., rising on the eastern
flank of the range, and backed northward by a cone Takat Musa,
alt. 8,720 ft. On the slopes in the neighbourhood of W. Sahrij
and elsewhere, grow honeysuckle bushes of great size: an
average specimen will measure 6 ft. in circumference by
11 ft. in height. On the slopes and plain southward of ‘Asal
el-Ward the vegetation is chiefly characterized by thistles and
thorns.
The peak Takat Musa is one of a mountain group named
J. Ma‘aret el-Bashkurdi from a large mountain village of
that name to the SE. The group is drained by the lesser W.
el-‘Awaj and is separated from the peaks further north by
a great gorge. On either side of the latter rises a regular
cone, the northern one being named Halimet Subbeh. Here
the mountain spurs spread eastward and come down close to
the termination of the third chain near Yabrud. The eastern
plain beyond this point is a rolling expanse disposed in
regular ridges separated by shallow wadis; in summer all is
barren except where a perennial spring produces a green
patch or supports a few poplars.
After a line of insignificant heights northward, the Qarnet
or Sadr el-Weiriq rises in a regular pyramid with sharply
defined angles. Still farther N. there is a series of peaks
named hallmeh or ‘ pap ’. They are: Halimet Zammarani
a long saddlebacked ridge, H. Qurreis a table mountain,
H. Qura'a a round bald eminence, and H. el-Qabu, alt. 8,260 ft.,
a saddlebacked peak, divided from its neighbours by deep