20 ANNUAL 
died out. Thus there may be said to have been a secondary 
connexion between meteoric and volcanic phenomena. 
The effects of the humid climate must have remained for a 
long time after the humidity itself had diminished. These effects 
would appear in the luxuriousness of the vegetation, and in the 
presence of extensive forests, of which hints are afforded in 
passages in the Old Testament and in other.writings.* The 
cutting down of the forests and neglect of planting have 
probably greatly contributed to the present dryness of the 
climate; while the soil has been washed down from off the 
hill-sides, which present a remarkably bare and rocky aspect 
over a large part of Central Palestine and Arabia Petrza. 
Planting and irrigation would undoubtedly go far to restore 
to Palestine its former character for fruitfulness. 
The nataral flora of Palestine and its borders is known to be 
remarkably varied; and, in consequence of its peculiar physical 
features,—the elevation of its hills and table-lands, and the 
depth of its valleys,—-this country seems adapted for almost 
every kind of vegetable product. Tropical plants find a genial 
habitat in the Jordan Valley, while the hillsides offer a fitting 
climate for sub-tropical and temperate forms, and for the 
planting of forests. In Southern Judea, thousands of acres of 
rich soil. adapted for the growth of wheat and other cereals, 
lie uncultivated and afford only pasture for the small flocks of 
sheep and goats of the Bedawin. When riding over these 
great expanses of pasture-land, once thickly populated, now 
almost without inhabitant, I often thought, What more fayour- 
able home for industrious colonists could be found in any 
part of the world? 
[Professor Hvit added that he had been asked whether the geology of the 
district affords grounds for believing that the river Jordan discharged its 
waters into the Gulf of Akabah prior to the formation of the depression 
alluded to in the address. He desired to say that the question was one on 
which he had a very strong opinion, and one which he had had to defend 
recently against a writer in the Saturday Review. He believed that from 
the time that region was elevated out of the sea the waters of the Jordan 
never flowed into the Gulf of Akabah. There was at the beginning, in his. 
opinion, a lake which had its limits towards the south in the region of the 
Arabah Valley and the waters never flowed further, there being always an 
excess of evaporation beyond supply in that district. ] 
* Theophrastus, De Hist. Plant., lib. ii. cap. 81; Fausanias, lib, ix. ¢, 19 ; 
Horatius, Hpist. 1. ii.; Pliny, lib. xxiii. c, 4, &e. 
