NATURAL HISTORY OF THE BIBLE.

CHAPTER I.

PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY OF THE HOLY LAND.

ALONG the straight eastern shores of the Mediterranean there run, very near the coast, two parallel ranges of mountains, forming a rugged barrier between the sea on the west, and the wide desert plains of North Arabia and Assyria, which stretch to the Euphrates and the Tigris,

on the east.

The western range, continuing almost unbroken from Mount Taurus, in Asia Minor, where it overshadows the city of Tarsus, culminates at length in the Lebanon, on the northern frontier of Palestine, its highest peaks being Dhor el Khodib, just above the famed cedar grove, 10,050 feet high, capped with all but perpetual snow, and Jebel Sunnin, thirty miles farther south, 8550 feet above the sea. A short distance south of this mountain the ancient limits of the Land of Israel begin, and the Lebanon gently melts away, expanding in breadth as it diminishes in height; and forming by its many spurs the rugged hill country of Northern Galilee, cleft by the deep fissure of the Leontes, the modern Litany, which winds, with startling suddenness, first south and then westwards, till it opens on the Phoenician plain, and enters the sea a little to the north of Tyre. To this gorge of the Leontes extended the possessions of the tribe of Naphtali. The range then spreads itself more diffusely into the hills of Southern Galilee, till at Nazareth it slopes into the wide Plain of Esdraelon, leaving the even dome-shaped Hill of Tabor like an outpost standing forward in the plain. From Tabor the Plain of Esdraelon stretches westwards to the sea, only interrupted by the low ridge which parts it from the Plain of Acre,

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into which flows the River Kishon, through a broad opening where there is a blending of the maritime and inland plains, at the north-eastern shoulder of Carmel. Against Carmel the river seems to rush, and then, turning gently westwards, flows sluggishly by the northern edge of the mountain into the Mediterranean. A bold spur to the north of Acre pushes into the sea, completely separating the Plain of Phoenicia from that of Acre, but itself divided, and culminating in the points of Ras Abiad (the white promontory), or Ladder of Tyre, and Ras Nakura. This spur encloses a small plain in its bifurcation.

South of Esdraclon the hilly range starts up again, its wide front stretching from Cape Carmel on the west, along the ridge which dips near Megiddo. It then rises into the hill-country of Samaria, with Jezreel on its northern slope, while Little Hermon and Mount Gilboa continue the chain to Beisan (Bethshean), overhanging the Jordan. Southward, in a labyrinth of irregular hills, rocky dells, and narrow valleys (of which the most remarkable is the Vale of Shechem, between Ebal and Gerizim), with here and there a rich plan intervening, the mountain range continues through Ephraim, Benjamin, and Judah, to the south of Hebron. This hill-country, which embraces most of the historical sites of Palestine, reaches in its higher elevation an average height of 2500 feet above the sea level: Ebal being 2700 feet, Gerizim 2650, Jerusalem 2610, the Mount of Olives 2724, Bethlehem 2704, and Hebron 3029 feet.

Below Hebron the hill-country' sinks and expands into the south country,' a wide region of rolling downs, broad shallow valleys, and gentle elevations, bare of wood, and suited for pasture rather than cultivation, such as the region of Beersheba. This gradually fades away into the desert, the wilderness of the wanderings, the Desert of Paran, the modern Et Tih, a vast limestone plateau gradually rising from Beersheba, which is 1100 feet above the sea, to Jebel Moyle in its centre, 1750 feet, and thence to a plateau of 2500 feet; and culminates in Jebel Tîh, 4654 feet. Then a narrow sandy desert intervenes, and the Sinaitic group of granite peaks suddenly rises to a height of 9300 feet, rivalling the lofty summits of Lebanon, and finally terminates in Ras Mohammed at the bifurcation of the Red Sea.

We must remember that this backbone of Palestine absolutely touches the coast at only two or three points south of Lebanon, as at the Ladder of Tyre and Carmel. The western shore is fringed by a succession of plains, narrower in the north, but widening into the desert in the south; first the narrow strip called the Plain of Phoenicia, on the edge of which stand the cities of Sidon and Tyre; then, after the headlands spoken of above, the crescent-shaped Plain of Acre, with the old port of Achzib (Zib) at its north end, Acre or l'tolemais in the centre, and Caiffa (Sycaminum) at the south, at the foot of Mount Carmel. Carmel, by its projection, forms the Bay of Acre, and is the northern barrier of the great Plain of Sharon. It leaves, however, a narrow sandy belt at its foot, by which there is easy communication along the shore. The Plain of Sharon, the old heritage of Dan, with the ruined ports of Dor and Cæsarea, and the still flourishing town of Jaffa (Joppa), here begins, widening as we advance to the south, and gradually melting into the low Plain of Philistia, between which and Sharon there is no natural barrier. This is the Shephelah or low country' of Scripture, and it finally is lost in the sandy desert, which, commencing from the south-west on the sea coast, gradually encroaches on the fertile plain.

The eastern of the two parallel ranges of mountair which run through Syria from north to south is know. as the Anti-Lebanon, and is generally inferior in elevation to the Lebanon, but is the mother of the Orontes, the Abana, the Pharpar, and the Jordan, all of which, the great rivers of Syria, take their rise in the same region, not far apart. This chain is divided from the Lebanon, north of the Holy Land, by a broad valley called El Buka'a, the ancient Cole-Syria, or Hollow of Syria, the tetrarchate of Abilene of the New Testament.

Just south of Cole-Syria, the chain reaches its greatest elevation in the crowning height of Hermen or Jebel Sheikh (ie., the prince mountain). 9800 feet above the sea. Hermon looks down on the whole of Palestine. When we enter the land from the north, as we creep round the base of Lebanon and approach the Phoenician plain, its dome-like crest rises above the flattened ledges of the Southern Lebanon. If we enter from the south, we have scarcely traversed the Judæan wilderness before we detect a din white cone overlooking the

brown heights of Samaria and the dark green hills of Galilee.

To the east and south-east of Hermon extends a vast rugged region, comparatively unmarked by any preeminent peaks, but seamed and furrowed by endless hidden ravines, cracks in the molten sea of lava which has once been poured over the whole country, and then cooled down, a sea of black rock, whose very waves seem to have been arrested and petrified before they had time to fall. This region is part of the kingdom of Og, king of Bashan, the Argob of the Old Testament, the Trachonitis of the New Testament, now known as the Lejah. In its cracks and fissures it still maintains a considerable population. The region itself, physically speaking, is quite out of the boundaries of Palestine, but, politically, it was part of Israel, and, geologically, it has affected by its irruptions the eastern bank of the Upper Jo.dan, and modified the character of the country.

From Hermon the second range still continues its parallel southward course, prolonged, less diffusely than the Lebanon, into the trans-Jordanic chain which everywhere bounds the eastern horizon to the traveller in Western Palestine, the long straight line of the mountains of Ajlun, Gilead, and Moab. Between Hermon

and Ajlun, in northern Gilead and Bashan, the range has rather the appearance of the wall of an elevated plateau gently falling eastward than of a true mountain chain. But Ajlun, its pine-clad summit often capped with snow, looks down on the Jabbok from a height of about 6500 feet, and Jebel Osha, the highest top of Mount Gilead, is estimated at about 5000 feet. The principal peaks of the Moab range, or Mount Abarim, are Nebo, Attarus, and Shihan, which have not yet been accurately measured, but of which, by our barometrical observations, Nebo appears to reach the height of 4600 feet. From Moab this chain still continues southward, where Mount Hor rises to 5300 feet, enclosing the clefts of Petra; and thence forming the eastern front of the Arabah, it continues to Akabah, the ancient Eziongeber, and fringes the eastern shore of the Gulf of Akabah, opposite to the Sinaitic group.

It may be observed that the drainage from the east side of this range nowhere reaches the sea or the Valley

of the Euphrates; but as the Barada and the Awaj (the Abana and Pharpar) are lost in the deserts east of Damascus, so all the streams to the south of these are soon absorbed in the sand after fertilizing the Hauran, and south of it a rich pastoral country, the Belka, or Plains of Moab. Beyond these another elevation of the desert forms the western watershed of the Euphrates valley.

But it is between the two parallel chains of mountains which we have traced that the most extraordinary physical feature of the country is found. It is not a valley merely, but a deep chink, ploughed deep down into the bowels of the earth, which separates Western Palestine from the country east of Jordan-the Ghor, or Jordan valley. From the rise of that mysterious river, in the rocks of the Anti-Lebanon, the valley steadily deepens. It pauses awhile in the high Lake of Merom, the modern Huleh, just south of Hermon, and below the city of Laish or Dan, not far from the later Cæsarea Philippi, where it collects in a wide basin the contributions of many affluents. Thence it descends rapidly to the second halting place in its career, the Sea of Galilee, linked for ever with our holiest memories. Deepening still as it proceeds, the river breaks from the southern end of the lake to enter on the third stage of its existence, plunging in a strangely tortuous course, with windings so infinitely multiplied that it increases a distance of 6 miles to 200, while confined within the narrow trench of its lower terraces, rarely more than two miles wide, which form the edge of the Ghor, or 'Plain of Jordan' of the Jews. The upper terraces reach back for several miles to the enclosing hills. At length, as the valley deepens, the Jordan becomes, in the Dead Sea, a long pool, forty-two miles long, and from twelve to sixteen wide, 1292 feet below the level of the sea, the deepest depression on the earth's surface. It is this deep furrow which has caused the marvellous variety of climate, products, and scenery which are the characteristics of the land, and has for many centuries separated the history and fortunes of the country on this side, and of that on the other side Jordan. The Jordan is unique among rivers in its origin, its lonely course, and its gloomy termination.

Southward of the Dead Sea, the deep trench still continues in the Arabah bu gradually rises, until a little