The elevations of Eastern Palestine have not been taken with accuracy. Some of those collected by Van de Velde appear to be mere estimates. They may be given, however, in the absence of better Kuneiterah, at the southern base of Feet.
Hermon (v. Schubert) - - 3037 Plateau, southward, do. - - - 3000 Plain of Hauran, approximation (Rus segger) 2650 Kuleib, highest summit of Hauran mountains, do. - - - - 6400 Jebel Ajlan, highest point in north Gilead (much too high), approxima tion, do. 6500 Jebel Osha (much too high), about - 5000The following books contain all the information yet given to the public regarding the plain of Moab :—Burckhardt, Travels in Syria, 364, seq. ; Irby and Mangles, Travels in Egypt, etc., 456, seq., 1st ed.; Seetzen, Reisen, i. 405, seq. ; ii. seq. ; De Saulcy, Voyage Round Me Dead Sea, i. 329, seq. ; G. Robinson, Travels in Palestine, ii.
; Handbook for Syr. and Pal., 297, seq.
It may be well now to group together a few of those characteristics of Palestine, embodied in the preceding sketch of its physical geography, and which tend to illustrate some of the statements and incidental notices of the sacred writers.
1. To an Englishman Palestine does not appear either rich or beautiful. Calling to mind the glowing descriptions of the Bible, the Eastern traveller is apt to feel grievous disappointment, and even to accuse the sacred writers of exag geration. They speak of the land as 'a lend flowing with milk and honey' (Exod. iii. 8 ; Lev. xx. 24 ; Deut. vi. 3 ; Josh. v. 6) ; a good land, a land of brooks of water, of fountains and depths that spring out of valleys and hills ; a land of wheat, and barley, and vines, and fig trees, and pomegranates ; a land of oil olive, and honey ; a land wherein thou shalt eat bread without scarce ness' (Deut. viii. 7-9) ; a land of hills and valleys, and drinketh water of the rain of heaven ; a land which the Lord thy God careth for ; the eyes of the Lord thy God are always upon it, from the beginning of the year even unto the end of the year' (xi. II, 12). Those accustomed to western verdure, and the full glory of western harvests. can see little fertility in the naked hills and bleak plains of Palestine. A thoughtful consideration of the whole subject, however, and a careful survey of the country, prove that the words of the sacred penmen were not exaggerated. It must be borne
in mind that they were describing an eastern, not a western land. When Moses addressed the above words to the Israelites, he was accustomed, and so were they, to the flat surface, and cloudless, rain less, sky of Egypt, and to the stern desolation of the wilderness. Compared with these, Palestine was a land of hills and valleys, of rivers and foun tains, of corn and wine. Palestine is not now what it then was. The curse is upon it. Eighteen centuries of war, and ruin, and neglect, have passed over it. What would the fairest country of Europe be under similar circumstances '1 But the close observer can still see the vast resources of the land, and abundant evidences of former richness, and even beauty. The products ascribed to it by the sacred writers are just those for which its soil and climate are adapted. The wide plains for wheat and barley ; the sheltered glens and deep warm valleys for the pomegranate, the olive, and the palm ; the terraced slopes of hills and mountains for the vine and the fig. Then there are the oak forests still on Basilan ; the evergreen shrubberies on Carmel ; the rich pastures on Sharon, Moab, and Gilead ; and the full blush of spring flowers all over the land.
2. Palestine now seems almost deserted. Few countries in the old world are so thinly peopled. Some of the plains—the lower Jordan, for example, and Southern Philistia—appear to be 'without man and without beast.' Yct in no country are there such abundant evidences of former dense popula tion. Every available spot on plain, hill, glen, and mountain, bears traces of cultivation. It is a land of ruins.' Everywhere, on plain and moun tain, in rocky desert and on beetling cliff, are seen the remains of cities and villages. In Western Palestine they are heaps of stones, or white dust and rubbish strewn over low tells—in Eastern, the ruins are often of great extent and magnificence. All this accords with the vast population mentioned alike by the writers of the 0. T. (Judg. xx. 17 ; Sam. xv. 4 ; I Chron. xxvii. 4-15), and of the New (Matt. v. I ; ix. 33 ; Luke xii. t, etc.), and confirmed by the statements of Josephus.