Although we were travelling on snow, the temperature was so mild that not one of our party put on a cloak.

We could not imagine how it was possible for snow to exist in such a high temperature.

The thermometer stood at 9 degrees Reaumur.
A fatiguing and dangerous ride of five hours at length brought us from the foot to the highest point of Mount Lebanon.

Here, for the first time, we can see the magnitude and the peculiar construction of the range.
Steep walls of rock, with isolated villages scattered here and there like beehives, and built on natural rocky terraces, rise on all sides; deep valleys lie between, contrasting beautifully in their verdant freshness with the bare rocky barriers.

Farther on lie stretched elevated plateaux, with cows and goats feeding at intervals; and in the remote distance glitters a mighty stripe of bluish-green, encircling the landscape like a broad girdle--this is the Mediterranean.