6 THE GREAT TREELESS PLAINS. 



"Until the day break, and the shadows flee away, 

 I will get me to the mountain of myrrh 

 And to the hill of frankincense." * 



" Thy plants are an orchard of pomegranates, with pleasant fruits ; 

 Camphire with spikenard, spikenard and saffron, with all 



trees of frankincense ; 



Myrrh and aloes, with all the chief spices. 

 A fountain of gardens, a well of living waters, and streams 



from Lebanon. 



Awake, O North wind; and come, thou South; 

 Blow upon my garden, that the spices thereof may flow out. " f 



It is, however, not with the luxuriant beauty of their 

 cultivated portions, but rather with these great plains 

 in their sterner aspects, as a wild country, that these 

 volumes more particularly profess to treat. 



The bare appearance which the absence of trees 

 from the landscape has imparted to the plains country, 

 and the serious inconvenience which the want of fuel 

 sometimes occasions, has often exercised the minds of 

 geographical observers to discover the reason why 

 trees do not grow there. It is evidently not because 

 the land is incapable of growing them; because as 

 soon as trees are planted, and protected by settlers, 

 they are found in general to grow remarkably well. 

 It has therefore sometimes been supposed that the 

 absence of trees is caused by fires, owing to the fre- 

 quent practice of the natives in the plains countries 

 of firing the grass in the dry season; and it may be 

 that to a certain extent this may sometimes account 

 for their absence; yet trees are to be found growing 

 in so many positions along the banks of streams, and 



* The Song of Solomon, ch. iv., verse 6. 

 | Ibid, ch. iv., verses 13 to 16. 



