140
ACRE.
■years of the Crusades, as well as in more recent
times. It is built on the sea-coast, in a vast plain,
probably twenty or twenty-five miles in extent.
Although so rich in historical associations, it did
not strike me as at all attractive. The town is
neither handsome nor ancient. It has been so fre-
quently battered down, in the different sieges that
it has undergone, that almost every trace of an-
tiquity has been obliterated. Remaining only long
enough to procure refreshments, and make a hasty
survey of the place, we again mounted our horses,
and set off for Tyre. After riding about three
hours, we left the plain already mentioned, and
crossed a mountain ridge of limestone, which ter-
minates at the sea in a precipitous rocky promon-
tory. Our path lay along the edge or brink of this
promontory, and there were places where, if our
horses had chanced to slip, it would have resulted, in
all probability, in our suddenly taking a sea-bath, two
or three hundred feet below the road which we were
travelling. Having passed this mountain ridge,
we continued our journey along a rough, irregular
road, for perhaps a half an hour further, when we
came to another ridge of limestone, almost as white
as the whitest marble, which we crossed in a similar
manner, our path running, as before, near the edge
ACRE.
■years of the Crusades, as well as in more recent
times. It is built on the sea-coast, in a vast plain,
probably twenty or twenty-five miles in extent.
Although so rich in historical associations, it did
not strike me as at all attractive. The town is
neither handsome nor ancient. It has been so fre-
quently battered down, in the different sieges that
it has undergone, that almost every trace of an-
tiquity has been obliterated. Remaining only long
enough to procure refreshments, and make a hasty
survey of the place, we again mounted our horses,
and set off for Tyre. After riding about three
hours, we left the plain already mentioned, and
crossed a mountain ridge of limestone, which ter-
minates at the sea in a precipitous rocky promon-
tory. Our path lay along the edge or brink of this
promontory, and there were places where, if our
horses had chanced to slip, it would have resulted, in
all probability, in our suddenly taking a sea-bath, two
or three hundred feet below the road which we were
travelling. Having passed this mountain ridge,
we continued our journey along a rough, irregular
road, for perhaps a half an hour further, when we
came to another ridge of limestone, almost as white
as the whitest marble, which we crossed in a similar
manner, our path running, as before, near the edge