in the Archipelago; a tract from which in these days a hundred individuals can hardly draw a scanty subsistence formerly maintained thousands in affluence. Moses might justly say that Canaan abounded in milk and honey. The flocks of the Arab still find in it a luxuriant pasture, while the bees deposite in the holes of the rocks their delicious stores, which are sometimes seen flowing down the surface.

The opinions just stated with regard to the fertility of ancient Palestine receive an ample confirmation from the Roman historians, to whom, as a part of their extensive empire, it was intimately known. Tacitus, especially, in language which he appears to have formed for his own use, describes its natural qualities with the utmost precision, and, as is his manner, suggests rather than specifies a catalogue of productions, the accuracy of which is verified by the latest observations. The soil, says he, is rich, and the atmosphere dry; the country yields all the fruits which are known in Italy, besides balm and dates.*

But it has never been denied that there is a remarkable difference between the two sides of the ridge which forms the central chain of Judea. On the western acclivity, the soil rises from the sea towards the elevated ground in four distinct terraces, which are covered with an unfading verdure. The shore is lined with mastictrees, palms, and prickly pears. Higher up, the vines, the olives, and the sycamores, amply repay the labour of the cultivator; natural groves arise, consisting of evergreen oaks, cypresses, andrachnés, and turpentines. The face of the earth is embellished with the rosemary, the cytisus, and the hyacinth. In a word, the vegetation of these mountains has been compared to that of Crete. European visiters have dined under the shade

* Terra finesque, quà ad Orientem vergunt, Arabia terminantur; a meridie Egyptus objacet; ab occasû Phoenices et mare; septemtrionem a latere Syriæ longe prospectant. Corpora hominum salubria et ferentia laborem: rari imbres, uber solum: fruges nostrum ad morem; præterque eas balsamum et palmæ. Hist. lib. v. c. 6.

of a lemon-tree as large as one of our strongest oaks, and have seen sycamores, the foliage of which was sufficient to cover thirty persons along with their horses and camels.*

On the eastern side, however, the scanty coating of mould yields a less magnificent crop. From the summit of the hills a desert stretches along to the Lake Asphaltites, presenting nothing but stones and ashes, and a few thorny shrubs. The sides of the mountains enlarge, and assume an aspect at once more grand and more barren. By little and little the scanty vegetation languishes and dies; even mosses disappear, and a red burning hue succeeds to the whiteness of the rocks. In the centre of this amphitheatre there is an arid basin enclosed on all sides with summits scattered over with a yellow-coloured pebble, and affording a single aperture to the east, through which the surface of the Dead Sea and the distant hills of Arabia present themselves to the eye. In the midst of this country of stones we perceive, encircled by a wall, extensive ruins, stunted cypresses, bushes of the aloe and prickly pear, while some huts of the meanest order, resembling whitewashed sepulchres, are spread over the desolated mass. This spot is Jerusalem.†

This melancholy delineation, which was suggested by the state of the Jewish metropolis in the third century, is not quite inapplicable at the present hour. The scenery of external nature is the same, and the

* On this subject M. de Lamartine writes as follows:-" Quand nous fumes au revers de cette colline, la Terre Sainte, la terre de Chanaan, se montra tout entiere devant nous; l'impression fut grande, agréable et profonde; ce n'etait pas là cette terre nue, rocailleuse, sterile, cette ruche de montagnes basses et decharnées qu'on nous represente pour la terre promise, sur la foi de quelques écrivains prévenus, ou de quelques voyageurs pressés d'arriver et d'écrire, qui n'ont vu, des domaines immenses et variés des douze tribes, que le sentier de roche qui mene, entre deux soleils, de Jaffa à Jérusalem."-Tome i. p. 197.

+ Belon, Observations de Singularités, p. 140. Hasselquist's Travels, p. 56. Korte's Travels in Palestine. Chateaubriand, les Martyrs, vol. iii. p. 99. Schultze's Travels, vol. ii. p. 86.

general aspect of the venerable city is very little changed. But as beauty is strictly a relative term, and is every where greatly affected by association, we must not be surprised when we read in the works of eastern authors the high encomiums which are lavished upon the vicinity of the holy capital. Abulfeda, for example, maintains not only that Palestine is the most fertile part of Syria, but also that the neighbourhood of Jerusalem is one of the most fertile districts of Palestine. In his eye, the vines, the fig-trees, and the olive-groves, with which the limestone cliffs of Judea were once covered, appeared more valuable than the richest returns of agricultural skill, and more than compensated for the absence of those spreading fields waving with corn, which are necessary to excite in the mind of a European the ideas of fruitfulness, comfort, and abundance.

Following the enlightened narrative of Malte-Brun, the reader will find that, southward of Damascus, the point where the modern Palestine may be said to begin, are the countries called by the Romans Auranitis and Gaulonitis, consisting of one extensive plain, bounded on the north by Hermon or Djibel-el-Sheik, on the south-west by Djibel-Edjlan, and on the east by Haouran. In all these countries there is not a single stream which retains its water in summer; the most of the villages having their pond or reservoir, which they fill from one of the wadi, or brooks, during the rainy season. Of these fertile districts, Haouran is the most celebrated for the culture of wheat; and nothing can exceed in grandeur the extensive undulations of the fields, moving like the waves of the ocean in the wind. Bothin or Batinea, on the other hand, contains nothing except calcareous mountains, where there are vast caverns, in which the Arabian shepherds live like the ancient Troglodytes. Here a modern traveller, Dr Seetzen, discovered in the year 1816 the magnificent ruins of Gerasa, now called Djerash, where three temples, two superb amphitheatres of marble, and hundreds of columns, still remain among other monuments of Roman

power. But by far the finest thing that he saw was a long street, bordered on each side with a splendid colonnade of Corinthian architecture, and terminating in an open space of a semicircular form surrounded with sixty Ionic pillars. In the same neighbourhood the ancient Gilead is distinguished by a forest of stately oaks, which supply wealth and employment to the inhabitants. Peræa presents on its numerous terraces a mixture of vines, olives, and pomegranates. KarakMoab, the capital of a district corresponding to that of the primitive Moabites, still meets the eye, but is not to be confounded with another town of a similar name in the Stony Arabia.*

The countries now described lie on the eastern side of the river Jordan. But the same stream, in the upper part of its course, forms the boundary between Gaulonitis and the fertile Galilee, which is identical with the modern district of Szaffad. This town, which is remarkable for the beauty of its situation amid groves of myrtle, is supposed to be the ancient Bethulia, which was besieged by Holofernes. Tabaria, an insignificant place, occupies the site of Tiberias, which gave its name to the lake more generally known by that of Gennesareth, or the Sea of Galilee; but industry has now deserted its borders, and the fisherman with his skiff and his nets no longer animates the surface of its waters. Nazareth still retains some portion of its former consequence. Six miles farther south stands the hill of Tabor, sometimes denominated Itabyrius, presenting a pyramid of verdure crowned with olives and sycamores. From the top of this mountain, the modern Tor and scene of the Transfiguration, we look down on the river Jordan, the Lake of Gennesareth, and the Mediterranean Sea.t

Galilee, says a learned writer, would be a paradise were it inhabited by an industrious people under an enlightened government. Vine-stocks are to be seen here a foot and a half in diameter, forming, by their

Seetzen, in Annales des Voyages, i. 398; and Correspondance de M. Zach, 425. + Maundrell, p. 60.

B

twining branches, vast arches and extensive ceilings of verdure. A cluster of grapes, two or three feet in length, will give an abundant supper to a whole family. The plains of Esdraëlon are occupied by Arab tribes, around whose brown tents the sheep and lambs gambol to the sound of the reed, which at night-fall calls them home.*

For some years this fine country has groaned and bled under the malignant genius of Turkish despotism. The fields are left without cultivation, and the towns and villages are reduced to beggary; but the latest accounts from the Holy Land encourage us to entertain the hope, that a milder administration will soon change the aspect of affairs, and bestow upon the Syrian provinces at large some of the benefits which the more liberal policy of Mohammed Ali has conferred upon the pashalic of Egypt.

Proceeding from Galilee towards the metropolis, we enter the land of Samaria, comprehending the modern districts of Areta and Nablous. In the former we find the remains of Cesarea; and on the Gulf of St Jean d'Acre stands the town of Caypha, where there is a good anchorage for ships. On the south-west of this gulf extends a chain of mountains, which terminates in the promontory of Carmel, a name famous in the annals of our religion. There Elijah proved by miracles the divinity of his mission; and there, in the middle ages of the church, resided thousands of Christian devotees, who sought a refuge for their piety in the caves of the rocks. Then the mountain was wholly covered with chapels and gardens, whereas at the present day nothing is to be seen but scattered ruins amid forests of oak and olives, the bright verdure being only relieved by the whiteness of the calcareous cliffs over which they are suspended. The heights of Carmel, it has been frequently remarked, constantly enjoy a pure and enlivening atmosphere, while the lower grounds of Samaria and Galilee are occasionally obscured by the densest fogs.

*Chateaubriand, Itinéraire, ii. 123. Malte-Brun, vol. ii. 150– 160. Edinburgh Edition.