Orleans independent standard. [volume] (Irasburgh, Vt.) 1856-1871, 1865-04-28
IRASBURGH. VERMONT, FRIDAY

desert had not yet fallen.
Isaac once sowed on this land in the
margin of the desert, snow barren and
desolate in the extreme" and received
! in the same year an hundred fold. (Gen.
XVI. 12.l No husbandman could now
recover from the same soil the seed sown.
Moses took his wife and his sons, and
set them upon an ass, and be returned
to the land of Egypt (Ex. iv. 20) No
Arab of the desert would attempt the
same journey by similar means. lis an
utter impossbility except perhaps in the
midst of the rainy season.
The brethren Of Joseph once and again
went down from the land of Canaan into
Egypt, in time of extreme drought and
famine, with asses, (Gen. xiii. 26; xiv.
l3.) Jacob with all his sons and their
families went down into Egypt by the
same means of conveyance, taking with
them their cattle, (Gen. xiv. %; xlvi.
! g. This route has in a few instances
been travesed by modern tourists with
horses, though not without subjecting
the horse to extreme suffering for lack
of water but neither the ass nor the OK
could by any possibility make the jour-
ney, which was oftentime accomplished
under the pressure of fearful famine
and drought.
The flocks and the herds of the Israe-
lites, seven very much cattle" subsisted
for forty years on the desert, where at
the present time they could only be sus,
tanned by continued and stupendous
miracle. The children OF Israel repeat
edly complained for lack of water for
themselves and their focks: but only in
specific localities, at different intervals !;
nor is there an intimation that their con~
tinuous supply was miraculous. In this
connection the reflections Of DR.. Robin
son on this subject are peculiarly perth
nent and suggestive "How they could
have obtained a Sgftciency of water dur
ing their whole stay in the peninsula aud
their subsequent wanderihgsin in the desert,
is a mystery which am unable TO solve /;
unless we admit the supposition tha;
water was anciently far more abundant
in these regions thar at present. As we
saw the peninsula, body of two mil
lions of men could not subsst there
week without drawing their supplies of
water, as well as provisions, from a great
distance"
What possible solution of this mystery
can be offered other than that of this
learned traveller, that the supplies of
water and of provisions for men and
beast was then vastly more abundant
thsn at present over all the desert?
The existence of the petrifed forests
which overspreads the desert between
Cairo and the Red Sea, is a significant
fact, worthy of particular attention in
this connection. This region is part OF
the great desert, of which that of the
peninsula of Sinai is only larger sec.
ton. "If the tree fall toward the South,
or toward the North, in the place where
the tree falleth there it shall lie." There
the trees of this petrifed forest are still
lying in vast numbers in the place where
Grst they fell,-a perpetual memorial Of
spread the desert. But no portion OF the
wilderness is now more hopelessly bar
ren, more utterly void of vegetation, than
that of the petrifed forest, which once
spread a verdant landscape out over
these regions of drought and desolation.
Swetzen, in what is perhaps as arid
and desolate region as any in the whole
desert asked his guide TO mention all the
neighboring places W names he
knew. He received list of sxty-three
places 10 the neighborhood of Madurah.
Petra, and Akabah, of which total of
seveniy-ive all save twelve are now
abandoned to the desert, and have retain
ed nothing but their names.-"proof," he
remarks, that in very early ages this
country was extremely populous, and
that the furious wars with which the
Arabs, both before and after the age of
Mahomet, assaled the Greek emperors,
was able to convert into waste this
blooming region, exteLding from the
limit of the Hediaz to the neighborhood
of Damascus"
Joshua enumerates "six cities with
their villages" (xv 81, 62) in the wild
erness of En-gedi, west of the Dead Sea.
where David lived "among the rocks of
the wild goats" and where no human
habitation is found but the tents of the
wild Arab of the desert.
In view, therefore, Of all the foregoing
considerations, the conclusion is irresisti-
BILE that the resources Of the desert were
aforetime much greater than at present.
There the OK and the ass Of the patriarch
4 Al 4. 4