The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1905-12-24

|, the valley is checkered Win Drown
pIowIands, and in summer it is yellow
with ripeninS grain. Now and then
the traveller sees an aged llNe OAK
under the shade of which the harvest
ers gather for their MONDAY lunch.
EARTHQUAKES are frequent in the val
lev as they are all over Palestine, ana
there is as fndubitable proof in the stra-
ia of the Holy Land as in those of Cali
fcrnia that the region was once in the
grasp and throe of the earth's conVul-
sive forces.
Like the San Joaquin valley, the CEN
4raI depression of Palestine is shut IN
on both sides by high mountain ranges.
The one on the eastern border is much
loftier than the coast ridge and may be
ljkened to the Sierra Nevada. Its for
nation is quartz and secondary lime
stone intermingled with trap rocks.
The peaks in this chain, such as Nebo,
Gilead. and Moab, are wooded with live
oak cedar, fir and pine. The Bible
speaks of the sea of foliage on these
heights. which is ''agftated by the
gales" and the balsamic perfume OF
the forests is mentioned in solomon 5
song On the highest cliffs the bear,
prototype and cousin of the Cal1for-
MIA grizzly, looks down upon the dis
tant ftocks feeding on the foothlll
ranges. and above him soar the eagle,
the vulture (buzzard) and the hawk.
Eastward of this great mountain
chain is a barren country precisely like
the Humboldt sink or the Colorado and
Mohave deserts. Treeless and water
less except for an occasional mesquite
growth or sluggish well and for the
sunken stream of the Euphrates-the
uX-ilE 1sa1.11 ElC-
this simmering land is as desolate as
the Internal plains which Dante saw
in his nightmare visions. The desert
has been the tomb of innumerable
caravans and it's mirages have Knocked
men as they died. Above it is sky
of brass and across it rush furnace
blasts of air, driving clouds of sand
before them into the path of the cara
vans Even the cacti. which are 50
abundant on the foothills of the Jor-
dan and the coast, cannot survive the
desert heat and drought, but give way
to the harder growths which in the
barrens east of the Sierra are called
sagebrush and chemisal
AS if to make the physical parallel
between Palestine and California more
complete nature has Joined the coast
and interior mountain ranges at their
northern dips, and put at each meet
ing place a single snow-capped vol
canic peak. Where the two chains in
terlink in the Holy Land, Mount Her
mon rises to a height of 10000 feet
in California Shasta presides over the
union of the cliffs and crags.
CLIMATES AND PRODUCTS.
From the ice and drifts of Hermon
and Lebanon to the thirSting plains
of Judea, as from the glacial pinnacles
of Shasta and Whitney to the alkaline
sinks of Indio and Salton, all climates
may be found. The cedars of Lebanon
and those of the high Sierra bow in the
northern gales to the date palms of
Jerrin and San Diego. The streams of
Carmel and Hebron and of Santa Cruz
and Cuyamaca rush foamlng down
through powdered ravines and over
beds of yellow sand during the same
season of the latter rains" and in
summer time they lose themselves in
the porous soil and in the humid at
mosphere. LAS the stream of brooks
they pass away; what time they warm
they vanish; when it is hot they are
consumed
| On the hills about Jerusalem and
Main, as in a thousand other places the
| names of which are familiar in the
j sacred story, the traveller sees cactus
hedges, but the same abattis, with its
thorny disks and it's red fruitage of
prickly pear, marks the abandoned
fields of the mission padres at San
Diego. Even the mountain grades OF
California but repeat in their method
of construction the famous road to
Jericho, where the robbers were wont
to lie in wait. A picture of the steep
climb to San Bernardino's Bear valley
would pass anywhere in Palestine for a
likeness of the mountain highway