Sioux County pioneer., 1922-09-28

srael Crossed tho Jordan.
and honey" appropriately describes
the best it has to offer, for sheep and
goats can thrive on the thin herbage
that covers the hills, and the numer
GUS aromatic plants furnish plenty Of
excellent food for the bees; but it 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, 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
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 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.
I Not peak anywhere, and Tabor the
! only summit recognizable by its form.
They are all composed Of gray or red
dish-gray 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. It 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 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 glens have
no water except after winter rain
storm. There may probably have been
a more copious rainfall 20 or 30 CEN
turtles 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 must 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 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
i Jordan. 8
If Palestine Is not land Of natural
4 wealth nor a land of natural beauty,
what is it7 What are the Impressions
which the traveller who tries to see II
exactly as 1t is carries away with him
Roughly summed up, they are these I:
Stones, caves, tombs. ruins, battle
i fields, sites hallowed by traditions
all bathed in an atmosphere Of legend
e and marvel. !,i.s
i Never was there country, not be-
\ ling 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 cornfelds Except in the alluyial
soil of the; plain OF. Esdraelon and
along the sandy coast) seem to have
more pebbles than earth, 20 that one
/ wonders how crops 80 good as one
i 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 hollews and caverns most
frequent.