Greene County herald., 1922-09-22


the best it has to offer, for sheep and
that covers the hills, and the numer-
Gus aromatic plants furnish plenty of
excellent food for the bees; but 1t is
nearly all thin pasture, for the land
is dry and the soil mostly shallow.
The sheep and goats vastly outnumber
the oxen. Woody Bashan, on the east
side of Jordan, Is still the region
where one must look for the strong
bulls.
Palestine is not beautiful country.
The classical scholar finds charms
everywhere in Greece, a land conse-
Grated to him by the genius Of poets
and philosophers, although great
part of Greece is painfully dry and
bare So, too, the traveller who brings
a mind suffused by reverence and piety
to spots hallowed by religious associ-
ations sees the landscapes Of the Holy
Land through golden haze that
makes them lovely. But the scenery
Of the Holy Land, taken as a whole,
Is inferior, both In form and In
color, to that of northern and mid
die Italy, to that of Norway and Scot
land to that of the coasts Of Asia
Minor, to that of many parts Of Cali
fornia and Washington.
The hills are flat-topped ridges, with
a monotonous sky line, very few Of
them showing any distinctive shape.
Not a peak anywhere and Tabor the
only summit recognizable by It's form.
They are all composed Of gray or red
dish-ray limestone, bare of wood,
and often too stony for tillage. Be-
tween the stones or piles or rock there
are low shrubs, and in the few weeks
of spring masses of brilliant flowers
give rich hues to the landscape; but
for the rest Of the year all is gray or
brown. The grass is withered away
or is scorched brown, and scarcely
any foliage is seen on the tops or up
per slopes Of the rolling hills. 1t is
only In some of the valleys that one
finds villages Nesting among olive
groves and orchards where plums and
peach and almond blossoms make
spring lovely.
Few Wells and Springs.
Arid indeed is the land The travel
er says with the psalmist: MY soul
longs in a dry, parched land. wherein
no water is" Wells are few. springs
still fewer, and of brooks there are
practically none. for the stony chan
nels at the bottom Of the gleus have
no water except after winter rain
storm. There may probably have been
a more copious rainfall 20 or 80 CEN
,turies ago, when more woods clothed
the hillsides, and the country would
then have been more pleasing to
Northern eyes, to which mountains are
dear because rills make music and
green boughs wave in the wind.
To this general description there are
certain exceptions which musr not be
forgotten. The high ridge Of Mount
Carmel rises grandly from the sea, and
on Its land side breaks down in bold
declivities and deep glens upon the
valley through which the Kishon, an
almost perennial stream, finds Its way
to the Bay of Acre. Here, upon the
slopes of a long ridge, on the other
side of the Kishon, there Is a wilder
ing forest of ancient holm oaks, all
the more beautiful because it is the
one considerable stretch of natural
wood in the whole country west Of
Jordan.
Ii Palestine is not land of natural
wealth nor a land of natural, beauty,
what is 1t? What are the Impressions
which the traveller who tries TO see 1t
exactly as it is carries away with him?
Roughly summed up. they are these !:
Stones, caves, tombs, ruins, battle
fields, sites hallowed by traditions
all bathed In an atmosphere Of legend
and marvel.
Never was there country, not be-
ing an absolute desert, SO stony. The
hillsides seem one mass Of loose rocks,
larger or smaller. The olive yards and
vineyards are full Of stones. Even
the cornf1elds (except In the alluvial
soil Of the plain Of Esdraelon and
along the sandy coast) seem to have
more pebbles than earth, so that one
wonders how crops SO good as one
sometimes sees can spring up. Caves
are everywhere. for limestone is the
| prevailing rock, and 1t is the rock
| in which the percolation Of rain makes
clefts and hollcws and caverns most
! frequent.