PALESTINE. 135 



the imagination of the Oriental poet is to be found along 

 the eastern side of the mountains, because they give forth 

 no other stream comparable to the Barada in copiousness ; 

 but a certain amount of land has been recovered from the 

 desert, where the corn-crops are sufficient to recompense 

 the toil of cultivation, and olive-groves are abundant. 



Drear and naked is the appearance of the country as we 

 approach Palestine; though some of the mountains — as Car- 

 mel, Bashan, and Tabor — are richly wooded, and many of 

 the valleys are green spots in the wilderness. Particularly 

 is this the case with the valley of the Jordan, with its 

 groves of noble trees, its thickets of oleanders, its clumps of 

 fragrant shrubs, and its gardens of rose and balsam. One 

 side of the Lake of Tiberias presents the very abomination 

 of desolation ; on the other, the hills are gentle, the vales 

 soft, silvan, and romantic, and the dells enriched with the 

 palm, the olive, and the sycamore, trees which have sug- 

 gested so many striking images and apologues to the sacred 

 writers. Tlie Holy City itself stands on a declivity, " en- 

 compassed by seven stony mountains, wild and desolate." 

 Farther south the dreariness increases ; the valleys grow 

 narrower and bleaker ; the hills more sterile and gloomy ; 

 until, beyond the Dead Sea, we come once more upon the 

 solitude and silence of the Desert. 



ANIMAL LIFE IN PALESTINE AND SYRIA. 



Though carnivorous animals are numerous in the Leb- 

 anon, it is as individuals and not as species. Tlie central 

 mountains, however, are still haunted by the cruel and 

 crafty panther ; and jackals and foxes are common. The 



