Deposits of iron are known in several localities, but do not appear to merit extensive working. At Kesruan in the Buka'a the natives were extracting ore in a primitive fashion in 1909.
Stone and marble of different kinds are quarried at many places. Mill-stones of basalt from the Hauran are used in water-mills throughout the country. Potter's clay is obtained about Damascus, Jerusalem, Gaza, Ramle, &c., but is not of very high quality.
(5) Manufactures
Metallurgy. The metallurgical industry depends upon imported material, and is not of much significance. Its chief centre is Damascus, where the annual production of articles of copper and brass, plain hammered or inlaid with silver, is worth one to one-and-a-half million francs, about one-half being exported; metals are also inlaid on wood. There is a small output of a similar kind at Jerusalem. Machinery works with metal foundries are established in Jaffa, Beirut, and Haifa; repairing workshops, where smithy work is done, are found in most of the larger towns, and primitive smithies in the villages. Chemical industry. There is a small factory at Beirut, but a chemical industry can hardly be said to exist in Syria; chemicals are imported. Textiles are one of the few industries that can claim any real importance.
Silk spinning. Spinning machinery was first set up in 1840, and until the end of last century the industry, supported by French capital, enjoyed a progressive development, but decreasing profits owing to foreign competition have since led to a decline (cf. p. 94). The old hand-spindle has not yet quite disappeared. Silk spinning is centred in the Lebanon, where in 1912 there were 155 factories, as against 39 elsewhere. More than half the silk produced in the country comes from the Lebanon, and both there and in the adjoining districts of the Beirut vilayet the
