208 On the Soil, Productions, ^c. of Palestine. 



sical instruments. These seem to confirm the notion of 

 sound being something sui generis ; but, at present, it would 

 be premature to discuss them. In the mean time, the fact of 

 its being necessary that a vacuum should be formed and filled 

 before sound is evolved, is stated for the purpose of inducing 

 others to pursue the subject. 



On the Soil of Palestine — its Deterioration — its Productions — 

 Food of the Orientals — Fertility/ of Palestine — Means of 

 Bestoration — Be turn of the Jews — Peculiar features of the 

 Landscape — Inhabitants — Mahomedan Civilization — Depo- 

 pulation, 



We had now taken our leave of the Holy Land, and had entered 

 the narrow domain of the ancient Phoenice. The boundary of the 

 two states was hardly more than five miles distant from Tyre. In 

 passing from Idumea to Jerusalem, and thence to the Sea of Galilee 

 and the shore of the Mediterranean, we had literally gone through 

 " the length and breadth of the land." We had seen the sites and 

 remains of the most famous Jewish cities, and traversed those por- 

 tions of country which were formerly most fruitful and populous. It 

 was a matter of deep regret with me, that circumstances did not 

 allow me to extend my excursions to the regions beyond the Jordan, 

 the inheritance of the two and a half tribes — and more extensively 

 along the shores of the Mediterranean. Still, I had seen much of 

 the ancient Palestine, and my tour, so far as that intere.sting region 

 is concerned, had now terminated. I avail myself of the occasion to 

 introduce some general observations upon the country, for which I 

 have not hitherto found an appropriate place. 



The soil of Palestine was the subject on which, of all others con- 

 nected with the country, I found that my information was most de- 

 fective. The statements which I had seen were contradictory and 

 irreconcilable. One class of writers represent the country as barren 

 as well as desolate, and use the fact, either as an argument against 

 the credibility of the Bible, which ascribes to this soil the greatest 

 fertility, or as a clear demonstration of the divine origin of the Bible, 

 which has so many predictions of the utter ruin that has fallen upon 

 the country no less than upon its guilty inhabitants. To those who 

 are unable to perceive in the prophetic books any clear proof that 

 the soil of Palestine has been specially doomed to a miraculous ste- 



