The Sun.
London, England, 1869-02-04 00:00:00

THE ROB ROY IN SYRIA.

The Tinzes publishes a letter from "Rob Roy" ('sir;
Macgregor), whose voyages in the " Rob Roy C3°°,:•
have been so remarkable. Mr. Macgregor is now in SP:.
Ho sends an interesting account of his voyage 00 -1,0
Abana river and round the district. " All this region,%
writes, " though so near Damascus, is unko°W-a
and unsafe. I had to take two soldiers, Trwil°?,,,o
well, but wretchedly armed, for the eleven "e'ro
spent in these excursions, and the newsPsPe;
chronie'e
(Arabic) here and at Beyrout are about to
the discoveries made in their territory by a Weigle'
which may be briefly summed up as follows :-1.
AbanaHarr has three months, but the largest is not nelb
r
an (as in Vandevelde's excellent map), but nc.cli
Haush Hammar. These flow into a marsh whi
has no outlet. It is wrongly called a lake, for in 1.111
part is there a hundred yards of open water at
seasons. 2. The Pharpar has two mouths, but the. largwt
is the southern one, to the south of Kasrein (and, be
north, as in Vandeveldc). These both fall into J-4-0
llijarieh, which is rightly called a lake, with an averll`r.
of five feet of depth, plenty of open water, and 33 °VI;
flow into another lake (Asyah Hasweh ; not Bala, as
Vandevelde). Also the lake Matkh Brak is bf
a marsh, and the river Khuneifis was Perfe,cat •
dry when I crossed its bed twice in a short eca,',lo
sion to the first of the 'giant cities,' Brak.
wonderful `stone town' can no longer be regarde" Da
uninhabited. An Arab has come to it from AlePP° f:De
gathered 109 people round him, who now occupY re
ancient dwellings so long tenantless. In a few years°;',o,iit
the houses will be plastered, and the sentiment of the s'lol
will be destroyed. Bing in light marching, order, ''issre
only saddlebags, I put up in this Sheikh's house• do,
entered the yard through a gate with a stone i 0
still turning on its hinges as it may have d°13°,.„10
the days of Abraham. I slept in a room with s"its
rafters each 10ft long, and a window having foriisii
shutter one slab of stone. I here read of the flg it
elections, and of Mr. Bright as a Cabinet Ministendoo
was indeed a strange sensation when I closed this wfu 011
for the night, and the heavy slab turned easily by a Poe
from one of my fingers. Mr. Rogers has sent 00
British Museum one of these extraordinary slab doors•I‘130
six inches in thickness ; also a copy of the inscription °a12,1
stone in this particular house, which is in Greeks ~,a ndated, I believe, more than 2,000 years ago, I visi' oo
number of villages in the plain Of Damascus. The 9,recilef
there are handsome ; many of them are tattooed. 000
wear very brilliant colours, chiefly red (as in EgYO the
sees always blue), and long red boots turned uP stand
ends. They are strong, healthy, good-humoured, very
intelligent. Their houses are of mud, but not the
dirty. They ran in crowds along the rivers "whiled in
canoe passed, but when it was on shore (and wraPre find
carpets) it was constantly supposed to be a c°flirl'ol/0
several times the women shrieked as I took off the c 061
and launched the boat. Blessed with fine weathersyrirn
perfect health, I have enjoyed this canoe voyage i° the
and Egypt to the highest degree, and once more o'eilope
spurs of Hermon, which is now all white in snow, I cod
to launch the Rob Roy on Lake Hulen and then dee
the sacred Jordan."

For an example to its readers, a North CiJr°111;11
paper announces that the Speaker of the North ef'r°,o
House of ReFresentatives "Las been sober all the ses.sl°-•
V.' • Pea"
A correspondent writing to the Indo----°?°;„3t,
Correspondence from Monghyr, under date the 21st ;
states that " a very serious accident, brought about the
manner unknown and perhaps unheard of si"c°,,
establishment of railways, not only in India, but °I.-1,11141P
out the world, happened to a train last evening 3t -DOOO
past eight p.m., between Sahebgunge and Alirzapore, fro. g
two miles from the latter station. At that time the ieb
down goods train was approaching a mangoe tope, I°, II•hglIt6
some seventy elephants were stationed. The red
of
glaring in the distance, and the noise and smoke °,,croft'
engine would seem to have caused an awful cons' 10
Con among the poor brutes, all of whom more 'lOO
tried to break away from their fastenings. Cs
male, however, the strongest and most courage"' -
lot, became so infuriated that he broke
rushed forward to intercept and encounter the 01100
enemy. He had scarcely placed himself on the 1-10Coritli
the train was down upon him. Ile encountered Poo!)
head and tusks ; but animal strength proved no match
for steam and machinery—the poor brute v,35 1130,1ingl
down and killed on the spot, and the engine, reb°l Oe"
were eaPool
ran off the line, and it and eleven carriages W
into a ditch. The fireman luckily managed to .101Pcirisreri
time, and the guard did the same ; but the Pecl.rtitglel
named Smith, remained in his place, and rece:eP
his chain 50
from which it i§.1191 gPectdko_larag-9•4"