[p.34] strongly impregnated with iron; the rock is sandstone, of a dark
red colour. The other mineral curiosities are, a number of wells of
bitumen Judaicum, in the Wady at one hour below the village on the west
side, after recrossing the bridge; they are situated upon the declivity
of a chalky hill; the bitumen is found in large veins at about twenty
feet below the surface. The pits are from six to twelve feet in
diameter; the workmen descend by a rope and wheel, and in hewing out the
bitumen, they leave columns of that substance at different intervals, as
a support to the earth above; pieces of several Rotolas in weight
each[The Rotola is about five pounds.] are brought up. There are upwards
of twenty-five of these pits or wells, but the greater part of them are
abandoned and overgrown with shrubs. I saw only one, that appeared to
have been recently worked; they work only during the summer months. The
bitumen is called Hommar, and the wells, Biar el Hommar [Arabic]. The
Emir possesses the monopoly of the bitumen; he alone works the pits, and
sells the produce to the merchants of Damascus, Beirout, and Aleppo. It
was now at thirty-three paras the Rotola, or about two-pence-halfpenny
the pound.
I left Hasbeya on the same day, and continued to descend the valley on
the side of the river. Half an hour from the bridge, I arrived at Souk
el Khan. In the hills to the right is the village Kankabe. Souk el Khan
is a large ruined Khan, where the inhabitants, to the distance of one
day's journey round, assemble every Tuesday to hold a market. In the
summer they exhibit their merchandize in the open air; but in the winter
they make use of some large rooms, still remaining within the Khan. The
road to Banias leads along the valley, parallel with the course of the
river; but as I had heard of some ruins in the mountain, at a village
called Hereibe, to the east of the route, I turned in that direction,
and reached the