CLIMATE OF HISTORIC TIMES • 537 



Portugal, passes through Sardinia, enters Italy near Naples, crosses northern 

 Greece and Asia Minor to the east of Smyrna, the date palm is grown only for 

 its foliage, since it does not fruit. 



"Hence at Benghazi, on the north African coast, the date palm is fertile, 

 but produces fruit of poor quality. In Sicily and at Algiers the fruit ripens 

 occasionally and at Rome and Nice the palm is grown only as an ornamental 

 tree. 



'"The date palm therefore affords a test of variations in mean annual tem- 

 perature of three grades between 62° and 69°. 



"This test shows that the mean annual temperature of Palestine has not 

 altered since Old Testament times. The palm tree now grows dates on the 

 coast of Palestine and in the deep depression around the Dead Sea, but it does 

 not produce fruit on the highlands of Judea. Its distribution in ancient times, 

 as far as we can judge from the Bible, was exactly the same. It grew at 

 'Jericho, the city of palm trees' (Deut. xxxiv: 3 and 2; Chron. xxviii: 15), and 

 at Engedi, on the western shore of the Dead Sea (2 Chron. xx:2; Eccles. 

 xxiv : 14) ; and though the palm does not still live at Jericho — the last appar- 

 ently died in 1838 — its disappearance must be due to neglect, for the only 

 climatic change that would explain it would be an increase in cold or moisture. 

 In olden times the date palm certainly grew on the highlands of Palestine ; but 

 apparently it never produced fruit there, for the Bible references to the palm 

 are to its beauty and erect growth : 'The righteous shall flourish like the palm' 

 (Ps. xcii: 12) ; 'They are upright as the palm tree' (Jer. x: 5) ; 'Thy stature is 

 like to a palm tree' (Cant. vii:7). It is used as a symbol of victory (Rev. 

 vii : 9), but never praised as a source of food. 



"Dates are not once referred to in the text of the Bible, but according to the 

 marginal notes the word translated 'honey' in 2 Chron. xxxi : 5 may mean 

 dates. . . . 



"It appears, therefore, that the date palm had essentially the same distribu- 

 tion in Palestine in Old Testament times as it has now ; and hence we may 

 infer that the mean temperature was then the same as now. If the climate 

 had been moister and cooler, the date 'could not have flourished at Jericho. If 

 it had been warmer, the palms would have grow^n freely at higher levels and 

 Jericho would not have held its distinction as the city of palm trees." ^^ 



In the main Gregory's conclusions seem to be well grounded, although 

 even according to his data a change of 2° or 3° in mean temperature 

 would be perfectly feasible. It will be noticed, however, that they apply 

 to temperature and not to rainfall. They merely prove that two thousand 

 years ago the mean temperature of Palestine and the neighboring regions 

 was not appreciably different from what it is today. This, however, is in 

 no sense out of harmony with the hypothesis of this paper. As we have 

 already seen, students of glaciation believe that during the last Glacial 

 epoch -the mean temperature of the earth as a whole was only 5° or 6° C. 

 colder than at present. If the difference between the climate of today 



Geog. Jour., vol. 43, pp. 159-161. 



