Sacramento Daily Union, Volume 52, Number 111, 3 January 1885 — The Survey of Palestine. [ARTICLE]

The Survey of Palestine.

The surrey of Palestine has thrown light on another most important question concerning ancient Palestine — namely, the relations of the present climate of the country to that of < >lil Testament timer.. This question has been fully workeil out in papers which will l>e found in the memoirs ot' the survey, and the conclusions reached may be briefly summarized. Palestine is a small country, but it presents great varieties of soil, climate, ami water supply in various districts. We have the tropical .lonian valley and the arctic region «f Upper Ilurmon and Lebanon. We have rich volcanic corn plains in Baeham and round Jezreel, and sandstones overed with pines and cedars, and hard limestones over which perennial streams flow between fine woods of oak and terebinth in Galilee, and yet more in Gilead. We have Bat maritime plains, sandy and marshy, hot and malarious, bounded by ever-rolling dunes, but well watered by sluggish streams from the clear springs at the mountain foot. These plains run from Carmel to Gaza, ever widening, and supporting rich harvests. We have the low chalk hills, with their luxuriant olive yards and wells of living water ;;!1 along the eastern side of the maritime plains. Above rise mountains 3,000 to 4,000 feet high, and on the north attaining to 10,000 feet. These are generaliv rugged and bare, but carefully terraced and partly cultivated. The vine flourishes on these higher ranges, whirr the frost and mist aid the Btrong reflection of heat from the rock to ripen the grapes. P>ut besides these richer districts, we have the old deserts unchanged from the days of Abraham and <>( David; the fiat marly! platea%of Beersheba, where the nomads feed their flocks and herds as Isaac did before them; the desolate peaks and gorges of the Jeshimon, where the dun partridge and the brown ilex roam as they did when David hid in these fastnesses from Saul, : among the "rucks of the wild iroats." Kxploration does not tend to countenance the old ideas about a great change in climate. It La a matter for the naturalist and the geologist to decide, and we know certainly that brooks of water could never have flowed on the surface of the porous chalk of some of these regions any more than they can now. We know also that the land is still as fertile as of old; still well watered in certain districts; still with a sufficient rainfall ; and that when a ju.-t and stable Government exists (as in the Lebanon) the country still flows with oil and wine. J'.ut what wedn learn from a study <n the land and of history is the desolation wrought ly human means in Palestine. We find everywhere the copse covering the wine press, the thistles growing among the old field inclosures, the terraces in ruin-, the old, vineyard deserted, the olive yards exterminated, and many of the ancient woods en-tin-ly 'lit down. The forests which existed in the times of Titos and <>f the Crusad - are often entirely destroyed, and tine oak woods are represented by acres of stumps and roots; the great Antonine cities beyond Jordan stand in a wilderness full of ruined villages, over which the Arab wanders with his herds of camels. In brief we see that poverty and decrease of population, the decay of roads and aqueuu the ruin of the old cisterns, the destruction of the wood;, terraces and vineyards are the causes of the present desolation. This ha- often been pointed "lit, and experienee proves that, given a just and strong Government in the country, Palestine loL'iit become, like Southern Italy, a garden «>f the world. — [_< 'aptain Conder the Contemporary Review.