284 THE HOLY LAND. 
CHAP, trees ; not a single spot seemed to be neglected. 
^ -,-■■; The hills, from their bases to their upmost sum- 
mits, were overspread with gardens : all of these 
were free from weeds, and in the highest state 
of cultivation. Even the sides of the most bar- 
re?! mountains had been rendered fertile, by 
being divided into terraces, like steps rising one 
above another, upon which soil had been accu- 
mulated with astonishing labour. Among the 
standing crops, we noticed millet, cotton, linseed, 
and tobacco ; and, occasionally, small fields of 
barley. A sight of this territory can alone con- 
vey any adequate idea of its surprising produce : 
it is truly the Eden of the East, rejoicing in the 
abundance of its wealth. The effect of this upon 
the people was strikingly pourtrayed in every 
countenance : instead of the depressed and 
gloomy looks of Z)/>z2;flr Pashas desolated plains, 
health, hilarity, and peace, were visible in 
the features of the inhabitants. Under a wise 
and beneficent government, the produce of the 
Holy Land would exceed all calculation. Its 
perennial harvest' ; the salubrity of its air^; its 
(l) "The seasons," says Josephus," seem to maintain a competition, 
which should be most productive." See his account of the country 
around the Lake of Gennesareth, (lib. iii. de Bell. c. 18.) as cited in a 
former chapter of this Work. 
(2j We saw neiWiev jnosquitoes nor locusts; nor did the croaking of 
toads or frogs denote the vicinity of any of those deadly marshes which 
poison the atmosphere on so many shores of the Mediterranean, 
