(4) Fertility. The ridge of chalk mountains, chiefly those containing marl, is in most places so irrigated by water, and so acted upon by the sun, as to be remarkable for the luxuriant growth of the great variety of plants with which they are adorned. The basalt mountains give birth to nu merous springs. No soil could be naturally more fruitful and fit for cultivation than that of Pales tine, if man had not destroyed the source of fer tility by annihilating the former green covering of the hills and slopes, and thereby destroying the regular circulation of sweet water, which ascends as vapor from the sea to be cooled in the higher regions, and then descends to form the springs and rivers, for it is well known that the vegetable kingdom performs in this circula tion the function of capillary tubes. But though the natives, from exasperation against their foreign conquerors and rulers (Pliny, Hist. Nat. xii, 54), and the invaders who have so often overruled this scene of ancient blessings, have greatly reduced its prosperity, still I cannot com prehend how not only scoffers like Voltaire, but early travelers, who doubtless intended to declare the truth, represent Palestine as a natural desert, whose soil never could have been fit for profitable cultivation. Whoever saw the exhaustless abun dance of plants on Carmel and the border of the desert, the grassy carpet of Esdraelon, the lawns adjoining the Jordan, and the rich foliage of the forests of Mount Tabor; whoever saw the bor ders of the lakes of Merom and Gennesareth, wanting only the cultivator to entrust to the soil his seed and plants, may state what other country on earth, devastated by two thousand years of warfare and spoliation, could be more fit for be ing again taken into cultivation. The bountiful hand of the Most High, which formerly showered abundance upon this renowned land, continues to be still open to those desirous of his blessings.
There are some very excellent remarks on this subject in Dr. Olin's Travels (ii, 235-240), to which we must be content to refer the reader, being prevented by want of room from introduc ing them in this place.
6. LeVels. Annexed to the additions to his Paldstina, which Raumer published, under the title of Beitreige :air Bibb:schen Geografihie, 1843, there is an engraved scale of levels in Palestine. We copy the results in the subjoined table, and then offer some remarks upon them.
.Altitude. The measurements are in Paris feet, above and below the level of the Dead Sea.
Abme.
Great Hermon topoo Mount St. Catherine (in Sinai) 8,063 Jebel Mousa (in Sinaii 7,033 ebel et-Tylt (in Sinail 4,300 t ebel er-Ramalt 3,000 anneytra 2,85o Hebron 2,7oo Difount of Olives 2,536 Sinjil 2,52o Safet 2,5oo Mount Gcrizim 2,400 Semua 2,,25 Damascus 2,186 Kidron (brook) 2,140 Nabulus 1,751 Mount Tabor 1,748 Pass of Zephath 1,437 Desert of et-Tyli 1,400 Nazareth 82i Zerin 515 Plain of Esdraelon 459 Below.
Lake of Tiberias, English feet 84 The Arabali at Kadesh 91 Dead Sea, English feet 1,337 Some of these results are so extraordinary, that one might occupy whole pages in discussing them. The most important of them will be considered under their proper heads; and it is here only necessary to indicate a few of the more marked results. First, here is the remarkable fact, that the Mount of Olives and the Kidron, and conse quently Jerusalem, stand 7oo feet higher than the top of Mount Tabor, and about 2,5oo feet above the level of the Mediterranean. More to the south, Hebron stands on still higher ground; and while it is 2.7oo feet above the sea on the one hand, the Asphaltic Lake lies 4,000 feet below it on the other. This fact has no known parallel in any other region, and within so short a dis tance of the sea: and the extraordinary depres sion of the lake (1,337 feet helow the sea level) adequately accounts for the very peculiar climate which its remarkable basin exhibits. The points
at Tiberias to the north, and Kadesh to the south of the Dead Sca, arc both, and nearly equally. be low thc Mediterranean level, and, taken together, they show the great slope both from the north and from the south towards the Dead Sea, con firming the discovery of Dr. Robinson, that the water-shed to the south of the Asphaltic Lake is towards its basin, and that, therefore, the Jordan could not at any time, as the country is at pres cnt constituted, have flowed on southward to the Elanitic Gulf, as was formerly supposed.
7. Mountains. As all the principal mountains of Palestine are noticed in this work under their respective names, a few general observations arc all that here seem necessary. Schubert's remarks, given in this article under the heads Mineralogy and Levels, still further limit the scope of the ob servations to be offered, which will consist of a bird's-eye view over the country from north to south.
To Lebanon, which forms the northcrn boun dary of the land (see LEBANON), succeeds the high table-land of Galilee, which extends to the plain of Esdraelon, and the general height of which above the sea may, by a comparison of lev els, be estimated at between goo and 1,000 feet. The elevated situation of this region is evinced by the gradual declivity which it exhibits on all sides but the north—sloping on the east towards the Jordan and its upper lakes, on the west to the plain of the Acre, and on the south to the plain of Esdraelon. Travelers express surprise at the deep descent from the comparatively level plains of Galilee to the lake of Tiberias, which, as we have seen, is go5 Paris feet below the level of Nazareth. This table-land is not without its eminences. The chief of these is Jebel Safet, which stands isolated and is plainly seen from every point except the north. This is one of the highest summits in Palestine (2,5oo Paris feet). Although being merely a peak of the high table-land from which it rises, it does not seem to exceed elevations rising from lower levels, which are scarcely inferior. Still it is very high, even in apparent altitude. The summit of this lofty and steep mountain is crowned by a castle, and a little below the summit there is a city. This city is supposed to be that which our Savior had in view, as 'a city set on a hill,' in his Ser mon on the Mount (Alan. v:4); but it is doubt ful if any city existed there so early, although modern ecclesiastical tradition has been disposed to regard this as the Bethulia of Judith. (See BETHULIA.) The mountain itself is not named in Scripture, unless, as is probable, it be the 'moun tain of Naphtali,' mentioned in Josh. xx :g. Among the swells of this table-land are the Khu run Hattin (Horns of Hattin). This is a ridge about a quarter of a mile in length, and thirty or forty feet high, terminating at each end in an ele vated peak, which gives the ridge the shape of a saddle. This is alleged to have been the place from which our Lord delivered his famous Ser mon on the Mount to the multitude standing in the adjacent plain. The authority for this is very doubtful; and in the neighborhood, towards Tiberias, there arc at least a dozen other emi nences which would just as well answer to the circumstances of the history. One of these, nearly three miles southeast of this, is by similarly un certain tradition alleged to be the spot where the five thousand were fed with five loaves, although that miracle probably took place on the east side of the lake of Tiberias (Matt. xiv:t3-2t).