The Road Lies Along The Mountain, Gradually Ascending.
At one
hour and a quarter are the two villages Upper and Lower Beteloun
[Arabic] One hour and three quarters, the village Barouk [Arabic], and
near it the village Ferideis [Arabic]; these are the chief residence of
the Yezdeky, and the principal villages in the district of Barouk.
They
are situated on the wild banks of the torrent Barouk, whose source is
about one hour and a half distant. The Sheikh Beshir has conducted a
branch of it to his new palace at Mokhtar; the torrent falls into the
sea near Saida. From Barouk the road ascends the steep side of the
higher region of the mountain called Djebel Barouk; we were an hour and
a half in ascending; the summit was covered with snow, and a thick fog
rested upon it: and had it not been for the footsteps of a man who had
passed a few hours before us we should not have been able to find our
way. We several times sunk up to our waists in the snow, and on reaching
the top we lost the footsteps, when discovering a small rivulet running
beneath the snow, I took it as our guide, and although the Druse was in
despair, and insisted on returning, I pushed on, and after many falls
reached the plain of the Bekaa, at the end of two hours from the summit;
I suppose the straight road to be not more than an hour and quarter.
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