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which Paul and Barnabas preached are not only pointed out, but grand mass is performed in it at stated seasons by the modern pastors of the Greek and Roman Catholic religions. There are several very fine old aqueducts, which anciently led the pure water from the seven fountains of Daphne into the very heart of the town; and more remarkable still, the principal gate built over the road leading towards Aleppo, a very ancient building, is called by the Syrians Bab Bulos, or the gate of St. Paul. The Christian inhabitants, numbering about a thousand, are said by Mr. Neal to be a humble, unoffending race, poor and hardworked, yet good-tempered and willing to oblige. They make very faithful and excellent servants, and the height of their ambition is to serve Europeans. They never cease praying that the minarets of Antioch may fall on the heads of the Turks, and that the Christian Temple may arise and flourish again.

I was much gratified at the prospect of landing and spending a day at Scanderoon, one of the most interesting positions, in a commercial, historical, and medical point of view, on these remote shores of the Levant. Scanderoon is one of the main gates to the far east. It is the port of Aleppo, and stands at the mouth of the passes leading to Nineveh, Bagdad, and Babylon. The whole commerce of Northern Syria is brought to this port. The pilgrims from Constantinople pass yearly through Scanderoon on their way to Mecca; but when they return through it again they are sadly diminished in numbers by death. It is called Is Scanderoon by the Turks, Scanderoon by the Asiatics; but it is better known to Europeans by the name of Alexandretto or Alexandria, in commemoration of the Great

Macedonian. To the eye of a European traveller it presents a scene of Eastern activity; ships of different nations rocking on the wave; sailors raising and rowing their cargoes on to the shore, or from it; the Syrians, nearly naked, at work shipping or landing bales belonging to the different vessels; and Turkish Custom-officers, and Asiatic factors, Italian skippers, French masters, and English clerks and captains, all employed after their own fashion. Again beyond these there are multitudes of camels and caravans, and mules and muleteers, and every other variety of land carriers. Then the loading of all these is no easy matter, and providing food and water for the journey. It is said to be no remarkable event to see a thousand camels leave Scanderoon in one day for Aleppo, and bearing on their backs two thousand Manchester iron-bound bales of soft goods,a proud sight for an Englishman.

But notwithstanding these and such like attractions, travellers try to steer clear of Scanderoon. Fleas and mosquitoes and sand-flies are remarkably numerous and annoying in this quarter, and there are whole legions of rats very hungry and active. There are daring banditti in the mountains, ready to take property or life any day; to plunder the caravans, or to abstract goods even from the warehouses. There are millions of frogs within a mile of the beach, and serpents large and long, not a few on the flats. All these might be borne with or avoided, were it not that Scanderoon is probably the most unhealthy place in the world, the Sierra Leone of Asia, and even worse than that of Africa. It is surrounded far and near with pestilential marshes, so that, save it be on the sea beach, there is not a dry spot in the whole locality for a house to stand on in winter. The

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hovels of rush-huts are built in mire, into which the water rises from underground, and flows in on every side, and drips in through the roof. In these the natives sit and sleep on boards elevated from the ground above the water. Men, women, and children are often required to bale the water out of their dwellings,-and on these terms they are barely enabled to exist. The nourishment of the inhabitants too is bad; and as they belong to the Greek church, the natives are compelled to submit to rigid fasts for six weeks at a time, during which they are all prohibited from the use of nourishing food. In addition to these substantial comforts, the place is dreadfully infested with ravenous wild beasts; and especially with jackalls, which scour the plain in hundreds, sweeping along in full cry with a voice not unlike that of human beings sounding wha! wha! wha! These, especially at night, are wont to stop in an instant, and to utter terrific howls to a more distant party. This second detachment instantly gives tongue loud and long as the first, and thus the sound is borne on to a third party in still more remote quarters.-Then the native dogs of the district, whether wild or domesticated, mingle their deep bayings, and for the space of five minutes at a time they renew their incessant yells. Meanwhile the poor European traveller stands trembling and utterly confounded; and as the pack seems to scour in a direction as if more towards himself, in an instant he runs back to the ship's boat, and very earnestly insists on being instantly put on board the steamer till he perceives himself to be laughed at by all around him.

But the fearful fits of fevers and agues, and diarrhoea, and dropsical diseases, and inflammatory distempers of this wretched locality are no laughing sport to residenters. Well