Morning journal and courier., 1884-12-22
The Survey of Palestine. From Capt. Conder, in the Contemporar Re


 The survey of Palestine has thrown light on another most important question concern ing Palestine the relations of the present climate of the country to that of Old Testament times. This question has been fully worked out in papers which will be found in the memoirs of the survey, and the conclusions reached may be briefly summar- ized. Palestine is a small country, but it presents great varieties of soil, climate, and water supply in various districts. We have the tropical Jordan Valley and the arctic re- zion of Upper Hermon and Lebanon. We have rich volcanic corn plains in Bashan and round Jezreel, and sandstones covered with pines and cedars, and hard ime-stones over which perennial streams flow between fine woods of oak and terebinth in Galilee, and vet more in Gilead. We have fiat maritime plains, sandy and marshy ,hot and malarious, bounded by ever-ro1ling dunes, but well watered by sluggish streams from the clear springs at the mountain foot. These plains run from Carmel to Gaza, ever widening, the low chalk hills, with their luxuriant olive yards and wells of living water, all along the eastern side of the maritime plains Above, rise mountains 5000 to 4000 feet high, and on the north attaining to 1000 feet, These are generally rugged and bare, but carefully terraced and partly cultivated The vine fiou1ishes on these higher ranges. where the frost and mist aid the strong reflection of heat from the rock to ripen the grapes But besides these richer districts, we have the old deserts unchanged from the days of Abraham and of David; the fiat marley plateau of Beersheba, where the namads feed their hocks and herds as Isaac did before them; the desc late peaks and gorges of the Jeshimon, where the dun partridge and the brown ibex roam as they did when David hid in these fastness- es from Saul, among the "rocks of the wild goats.n Elaboration does not tend to counte- nance the old ideas about the great change in climate It is 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 l in certain districts, still with sufficient rainfall; and that when just and stable government exists Gas in the Lebanon) the country still flows with oil and wine. But what we do learn from study of the land l and of history is the desolation wrought by 1 human means in Palestine. We find every where the copse covering the wine press, the thistIes growing among the old field in l closures, the terraces in ruins, the old vine yard deserted, the olive yards exter1ninated, | and many of the ancient woods entirely cut down The forests which existed in the time l of Titus and of the Crusaders are often en- l tirely destroyed, and the fine oak woods
 are represented by acres of stumps and roots l the great Antonine cities beyond Jordan stand in 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 acqueducts, the ruin of the old cisterns ! the destruction of the woods, terraces, and I vineyards are the causes of the present des- l olation This has often been pointed out, | and experience proves that, given a just and strong government in the country, Palestine might become, like Southern Italy, garden I of the world.