THE WARMER TEMPERATE ZONE. 155 



abovo Konigsberg, 54 42' N. lat. It therefore 

 occupies a band of about 20 in breadth in the 

 old world, and about 10 in the new. 



In Egypt, its culture appears to have 

 been carried on from the earliest dates, as 

 we learn from Scripture, (Gen. xl. 9 11.) 

 It \vas never, however, grown to a great 

 extent, as the soil is unfavourable ; the grapes 

 produced are small, and wine was never, as 

 it is in south Europe, the common drink 

 of the people, who used beer from a time 

 only inferior to the culture of the vine. The 

 growth of the vine in Palestine, and the prepa- 

 ration of wine from it, may be traced to a very 

 high antiquity. Immediately after the Deluge, 

 Noah planted a vineyard, and drank of the 

 wine even to intoxication, (Gen. ix. 20.) Vines 

 were enumerated by Moses as among the 

 riches of the promised land, (Deut. viii. 8 ;) 

 and the spies who were sent to search the 

 land, cut down so large a bunch of grapes in 

 Eshcol, that they carried it suspended on a pole 

 between two of them, (Num. xiii. 23 ;) the 

 size and luxuriance of which doubtless asto- 

 nished the Jews, who had been accustomed to 

 see only the small grapes of Egypt. Similar 

 bunches, we are assured by travellers, have 

 been gathered in Hebron in modern days. 

 Very numerous are the Scripture references to 

 the vine, which we have not space to detail. 



The vineyards, among the Jews, were gene- 

 rally situated on the south side of a hill, or 

 mountain, which was often cut into terraces for 



