1835.] Notes of a Tour thrcvyh Palestine. 439 



viously formed anticipations. I had always understood Palestine to 

 be at present exactly the reverse of what it was in the time of the 

 Jews — barren, waste, rocky, inhospitable. Most travellers describe it 

 so ; but this proceeds partly from the time of year at which it is 

 visited, and partly from the difficulties of travelling compelling 1 people 

 to follow the same route. Travellers from India are generally too 

 early. The seasons here are similar to those of Europe — the spring 

 beginning in March, previous to which all is cold and uncomfortable. 

 You know what a striking difference there is between the black plains 

 of Nowlgoond, when covered with grain, and when bare, parched, and 

 cracked after the harvest. So here, where the heats of summer are 

 excessive, and burn up every thing, and the cold of winter is very 

 severe, the country both looks and feels wretched previous to the 

 approach of spring. We arrived in the middle of April, when every 

 thing was green and smiling ; perhaps a month earlier, certainly a 

 fortnight, would have been better, to enable us to have avoided the 

 present heats, which since the beginning of the month have not been 

 exceeded by any I experienced in India, except perhaps when I was 

 shooting lions at mid-day in Guzerat in the month of May. Then 

 the usual route from Egypt is to land at Jaffa, and come through the 

 rocky mountains of Ramlah, to Jerusalem ; and thence, having seen 

 the Dead Sea, to proceed by Nazareth to Burut, and sail thence ; most 

 of which is the worst part of Palestine. By coming by land, we saw 

 first the beautiful plains of Philistia; and the greater security afford- 

 ed by the Egyptian Government enabled us to visit with perfect ease 

 the country beyond Jordan, and indeed to see every thing we could 

 have desired. 



To an up-country revenue man, the Holy Land must appear one of 

 the most beautiful and productive countries in the world, presenting 

 every capability for raising an enormous taxation, as compared with 

 its size and extent ; and this, as well as the numerous evidences of 

 its former great population, presented every where in ruined towns, 

 deserted cultivation, &c. perfectly explains the important part it play- 

 ed when the seat of the Jewish kingdom. The centre of the province 

 presents a mass of limestone hills, running N. and S., bounded by 

 plains backing to the sea-shore on the one hand, and by the valley of 

 the Jordan on the other. These hills are horizontally stratified, and 

 this natural formation, appearing like a succession of steps from the 

 bases to the tops of the mountains, seems to have suggested to the in- 

 habitants the mode of cultivation they have adopted, by improving and 

 extending these natural terraces, and covering them with corn, but 

 more generally with vineyards, fig-trees, and olive plantations. The 

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