392 Proceedings of the Royal Society 
The impression produced on first entering Palestine is that of a 
barren country and of desolate ruins representing a former condition 
of prosperity. It must not, however, be supposed that the soil is 
wanting in fertility. The luxuriant growth of weeds and wild 
bushes sufficiently attests the richness of the land. In those 
districts where the soil consists of porous chalk, and where the water 
sinks down to the underlying impervious strata, the bareness of the 
country is very remarkable. In the higher mountains, where the 
dolomitic limestone is denuded, the western ridges are thickly 
clothed with copses of mastic and dwarf oak. In Sharon and 
Lower Galilee extensive woods of oak still exist ; and although a 
great destruction of forest (which existed even as late as the twelfth 
century) has apparently occurred in some districts, there is a 
corresponding spread of the thickets in other parts of the country, 
where the sites of ancient vineyards and orchards are found over- 
grown with thick copses. 
There does not appear to be any good foundation for the popular 
theory of a great diminution in the rainfall of the country. The 
average fall is now about twenty inches in the year, and all the famous 
springs noticed in the Bible are found still to yield a good supply. 
There are twelve considerable perennial streams in Palestine besides 
the Jordan, and many districts, such as the Hebron hills and the 
lowlands of Galilee, are plentifully supplied with springs. In the 
chalk districts no change in the supply can apparently have taken 
place within historic times, and the great number of cisterns and 
tanks, many of which are certainly of immense antiquity, gives 
evidence that it was necessary, even in the earliest historic period, to 
provide a large amount of storage for rain water in the districts 
not naturally supplied. 
The change which has actually occurred in the climate and con- 
dition of the country seems to be less important than is sometimes 
supposed, and appears to be due principally to depopulation and to 
the decay of the ancient cultivation. The malaria of the lowlands 
is plainly traceable to the absence of proper drainage, and to the 
destruction of the ancient works of irrigation, many of which date 
back at least to the Christian era. 
The swamps formed in the plain of Sharon are due to the filling 
in of ancient rock-cut channels, which once conducted the drainage 
