The Florence tribune., 1901-03-30
The Lesson of Lost Cities.
From the New York Tribune.l


 The account which we published on Sunday last of the intensely interest ing archaeological discoveries in Syria piques curiosity to ask some pertinent and important questions. There were found, largely iu an admirable state of preservation, the remains of nearly twoscore splendid and extensive cities. In what way have they been so marvel ously we'll kept while other abandoned cities of later date have crumbled into almost unrecognizable ruin? And how was it possible for a population of many millions to be sustained in pros perity and luxury in region which is now so inhospitabe desert that, to use Sheridan's grim words, bird fly ing over it must carry his rations with him? We know that once it was fer tile land. The richness of the pastures and focks and herds of Bashan has for ages been proyerbial, and to this day the orchards of Damascus and the wheat fields of the Hauran are the admiration of the world. Why is this land of the 8 cities glaring desert of sand and basalt?
 We may answer our first question with the last. The remains of the cities have been preserved partly because they were well built and partly because ever since their abandonment the land has been an arid desert. There is no vegetation and there is no humidity. There is fair amount of rain from October to May-the annual precipita- tion at Jerusalem is about the same as at Chicago-and from May to October there are nightly dews. Bat, falling upon beds of sand or slopes of lime stone and basalt, all such moisture swiftly vanishes, leaving no trace be- hind. In so dry an air the deserted buildings may we'll be imperishable. But what change has thus "dried up realms to dsserts?'' The answer is not difficult to find. It is to be read in the traces of vast irrigation systems, now for centuries neglected, and in the wsll.maintained systems which keep Damascus and the Hauran fertile to this day.
 | Whether or not the country was ever well wooded may now be an unanswer able question, though 1t is at least reas enable to suppose that at one time it was profusely clothed with vegetation, arboreal and herbal, which was de- stroyed by the recl1lessness and prodi gality of man, as it is to-day being de stroyed in our own laud. Certain iJ is that when these Host cities" were il their prime the fertility of the lans was maintained by systematic irriga . tion,. which not only supplied need ct moisture to the soil, but also, by foster ing vegetation, aided in conserving ant regulating the natural moisture tha fell from the clouds. As long as the people were there and kept up irriga- ton works the land was fertile. As sooi . as the people were removed-whethe by slaughter of war, by pestilence, Q by any other means, we kEow not the work of artificial irrigation ceased and the land became desert. Raj continued to fall copiously for half thl year, but it fell upon soil void c vegetation. The result was that if precipitate torrents washed the so away, leaving the hillsides mere slope of rocks.
 That is the explanation of the coi i, ditions which to-day prevail in ths a land of lost cities. We shall be blin # indeed if we do not perceive in it