392 L E B L E B
and has more large maufacturing establishments than any other town on the Missouri, including grist mills, foundries, and manufactories of waggons, carriages, furniture, and shoes. About 2 miles above the city is Fort Leavenworth, the military headquarters of the department of the Missouri. The Government reservation has a river frontage of 6 miles, with a depth of 1 mile. The population was 7429 in 1860, 17,873 in 1870, 16,540 in 1880. At this last date the reservation contained 1115 individuals.
LEBANON. The name of Mount Lebanon (Heb. (
Hebrew characters)
from the Semitic root laban, "to be white, or whitish,"
probably refers, not to the perpetual snow, but to the bare
white walls of chalk or limestone which form the character
istic feature of the whole range. Syria is traversed by a
branch thrown off almost at right angles from Mount
Taurus in Asia Minor, and Lebanon is the name of the
central mountain mass of Syria, extending for about 100
miles from north-north-east to south-south-west. It . is
bounded W. by the sea, N. by the plain Jún Akkár,
beyond which rise the mountains of the Nusairieh, and E.
by the inland plateau of Syria, mainly steppe-land. To the
south Lebanon ends about the point where the river Litany
bends westward, and at Banias. A valley narrowing
towards its southern end, and now called El-Buká'a,
divides the mountainous mass into two great parts. That
lying to the west is still called Jebel Libnán; the greater
part of the eastern mass now bears the name of the Eastern
Mountain (Jebel el-Sharḳi). In Greek the western range
was called Libanos, the eastern Antilibanos.[1] The
southern extension of the latter, Mount HERMON (q.v.},
may in many respects be treated as a separate mountain.
Lebanon and Antilibanus have many features in com
mon; in both the southern portion is less arid and barren
than the northern, the western valleys better wooded and
more fertile than the eastern, In general the main eleva
tions of the two ranges form pairs lying opposite one
another; the forms of both ranges are monotonous, but
the colouring splendid, especially when viewed from a
distance; when seen close at hand, indeed, only a few
valleys with perennial streams offer pictures of landscape
beauty, their rich green contrasting pleasantly with the
bare brown and yellow mountain sides.
Geology. – The Lebanon strati are generally inclined, curved, and twisted, often vertical, seldom quite horizontal. Throughout the whole of Syria the prevailing line of cleavage runs from north to south; subordinate to this is another at right angles to it. The rocks belong to the Middle Chalk system, and fall into four subdivisions. The first consists of an under hippurite zone about 3000 feet thick. Sometimes light grey dolomites boldly rise to a height of several hundred yards (as in Kesrawán); sometimes masses of marble present equally grand mountain forms (Jezzín); sometimes again friable marl and clay occur, producing rich pasture lands. The last member of this lower zone is a brown oolite containing sponges, corals, and echinoderms, amongst which the best known fossil is Cidaris glandarius (Salima). Here also belong the Radiolaria of Hakel, above which occurs the famous bed of fossil fishes. The second subdivision of the Middle Chalk consists of a thick sandstone formation, distinguished by the presence of Trigonia scabra and syriaca, and by a fossil balsam poplar (Nicolia). To the period of the formation of this member of the system belong volcanic eruptions of melaphyre and basaltite, and also copious eruptions of ashes, which are now met with as tufa in the neighbourhood of the igneous rocks. These eruptive rocks, which everywhere have again been overlaid by the thick sandstone, yield bitumen (mineral oils, asphalt, and dysodil), and have also had a great influence upon the superficial aspect of the country, the sandstone stratum (1300 to 1600 feet thick) having become the centre of its life and fertility, inasmuch as here alone water can gather. In the third subdivision, the Turon strictly so-called, oyster beds (Ostrea africana) and a stratum of orbitulites have the widest diffusion. Above the oysters come the ammonites (Ammonites syriacus, Von Buch). The fourth subdivision is formed by a light grey chalk of the upper hippurite zone, which begins in the Buká'a, and can be traced as far as to the Red Sea. The latest member is the Eocene nummulite (especially in Antilibanus). Generally speaking the prevailing colours are white in the first district, brown in the second, yellow in the third, and grey in the fourth. Apart from the formations already named, there only remain to be mentioned one or two more recent Tertiaries, which in some cases may go back to the end of the Miocene period, but for the most part are Pliocene. They are met with partly on the coast, being due to the action of the sea (Tripoli), partly in the Buká'a (Zaḥleh), the result of the action of fresh water. Finally, throughout the whole of the Lebanon district, there are unmistakable traces of ice action in the shape of ground moraines and erratic blocks. The glacier remains may practically be said to be associated with the four chief streams (Nahr Kadísha, Józ, Ibráhím, and Kelb).
Vegetation. – The western versant has the common characteristics of the flora of the Mediterranean coast, but the eastern portion belongs to the poorer region of the steppes, and the Mediterranean species are met with only sporadically along the water-courses. Forest and pasture land in our sense of the word do not exist: the place of the first is for the most part taken by a low brushwood; grass is not plentiful, and the higher ridges maintain a growth of alpine plants only so long as patches of snow continue to lie. The rock walls harbour some rock plants, but many absolutely barren wildernesses of stone occur. (1) On the western versant, as we ascend, we have first, to a height of 1600 feet, the coast region, similar to that of Syria in general and of the south of Asia Minor. Characteristic trees are the locust tree and the stone pine; in Melia Azedarach and Ficus Sycomorus (Beyrout) we have an admixture of foreign and partially subtropical elements. The great mass of the vegetation, however, is of the low-growing type (maquis or garrigue of the western Mediterranean), with small and stiff leaves, and frequently thorny and aromatic, as for example the ilex (Quercus coccifera), Smilax, Cistus, Lentiscus, Calycotome, &c. (2) Next comes, from 1600 to 6500 feet, the mountain region, which may also be called the forest region, still exhibiting as it does sparse woods and isolated trees wherever shelter, moisture, and the bad husbandry of the inhabitants have permitted their growth. From 1600 to 3200 feet is a zone of dwarf hard-leaved oaks, amongst which occur the Oriental forms Fontanesia phillyræoides, Acer syriacum, and the beautiful red-stemmed Arbutus Andrachne. Higher up, between 3700 feet and 4200 feet, a tall pine, Pinus Brutia, Ten., is characteristic. Between 4200 and 6200 feet is the region of the two most interesting forest trees of Lebanon, the cypress and the cedar. The former still grows thickly, especially in the valley of the Kadísha; the horizontal is the prevailing variety. In the upper Kadísha valley there is a cedar grove of about three hundred trees, amongst which five are of gigantic size; it is alleged that other specimens occur elsewhere in Lebanon. The Cedrus Libani is intermediate between the Cedrus Deodara and the C. atlantica (see CEDAR). The cypress and cedar zone exhibits a variety of other leaf-bearing and coniferous
- ↑ Lat., Antilibanus. The popular form Antilebanon is not legitimate.
