- SYRIA. In this important region of Western Asia the ordinary farming produce is raised in fair variety and quantity. Cotton, hemp, flax, madder, indigo, and tobacco, are to some extent cultivated. Almost all the fruits both of temperate and of tropical climates are met with in Syria. The forests on the moun tains consist of cedars, firs, and pines ; those of the table-lands include the oak, walnut, laurel, juniper, scammony, and sumach.
There are no metals found in Syria except iron, which is worked in the Kesrouan in Mar Hanna, west of Beirout, where also coal has been discovered of late years. In the Tyh Beni Isradil, and at the southern extremity of the Dead Sea, there are mountains almost entirely composed of rock salt. Bitumen is collected on the western shores of the Dead Sea. In the northern Ghaur pieces of native sulphur are found at a small depth beneath the surface.
Syria is the most manufacturing country in Western Asia. With the exception of hard ware and cutlery, there is hardly any manu factured article imported into Syria ; but a great variety of goods which are made in Syria are exported to Egypt and Anatolia, and still greater quantities go to the countries farther east, and find their way into Persia, where they meet the articles brought from Hindustan. The most manufacturing town is Damascus. The Phoenicians were probably supplied from Damascus with a great number of manufactured articles for the market of the countries that surround the Mediterranean, and they supplied the manufactures of Damascus with some of the materials used in them. The extent of the manufacturing industry of this town may be conceived from the statement of Schubert, that above 40,000 persons are em ployed in making silk stuffs, especially satin and silk damasks and brocades ; and that earn vans frequently go from Damascus to Haleb, which take no other goods but articles of this description. The varieties of manufactures at Damascus are almost countless. Those of Aleppo are considerably smaller, and are mostly limited to cotton and silk stuffs, and gold and silver lace. Some branches of manu facturing industry are carried on in most of the small towns, and even in some villages, such as cotton stuffs for gowns and shirts, the dyeing of cotton, mostly blue and red, tanning leather, and making soap. Such places, how
ever, supply only the neighbourhood, and the Beduins who resort to them for such articles, and they rarely if ever work for a distant market.
The commercial intercourse between Syria and Europe is very small. None of the agri cultural products of Europe are in demand in Syria ; no kind of grain is imported, with the exception of rice, with which Syria is supplied from Egypt. The manufactured goods of Europe are not in demand, not being adapted to the taste and customs of the East. The only article which is imported to a certain extent is hardware, which is almost exclusively supplied by England : some French cloth is also imported. The chief articles sent from Europe to Syria are supplied by the East and West Indies, and consist of indigo, cochineal, and coffee. The chief exports from Syria to Europe are silk, galls, olive-oil, sponges, fruit, and tobacco. The commerce between Syria and the countries to the east and north of it is very extensive, and is concentrated at Aleppo. Two well-frequented roads lead from Aleppo to Constantinople through Anatolia ; and two likewise extend from Aleppo to Persia, which divide at Orfa in Mesopotamia. But the most frequented caravan road between Aleppo and Bagdad lies to the west of the Euphrates, passing by Annah and Hit.
The objects sent from Syria to the Great Exhibition consist of specimens of the manu• facture of silk, gold, silver lace and embroidery, native jewellery, Lebanon horns, petrifactious, oils, different sorts of woods, seeds, the apples of Sodom, dm. The Paella of Jerusalem sends a few specimens of thy Bethlehem work in mether-of•pearl, which is brought by the Hadj from Mecca, such as the crucifixion, and other religious subjects. Mr. Consul Finn sends Pa lestine flowers arranged in a box of olive wood, and some specimens of Jerusalem contained in a box made of one of the stones of Jerusalem. Colonel Rose, her Majesty's eonsubgeneral in Syria, sends with the Syrian specimens a few gold antiquities. One of them is a gold mask found in a Greek sarco phagus near Gebel, which was placed on the face of a female corpse, and still retains her features.