Show EL 0 71 ei WAR waa I 1 0 PO 1 k N C v R 4 1 I I 1 J adv t a WO P I 1 4 pv 1 I M CT t K v A IM where the children of israel crossed he ahe jordan prepared by the national geographic society washington D C lia lestine lostine home of the british mandate for which has just been formally fori nally approved by the council of the league of nations has probably never been better described describe than by the late viscount drace former british ambassador to the uni aed states in a communication to the national geographic society lie he wrote of the holy land as follows palestine is a tiny little country though the tra travelers elers handbooks pre pare him to find it small it surprises him by being smaller than lie he expected taking it as tile region between be ticen the mediterranean on the nest and the jordan and dead sea on the east from the spurs of lebanon and hermon on the north to the desert at beersheba on the south it Is only miles ion and from 50 60 to GO CO broad that Is to say ay it Is smaller than new jersey whose area is square miles of this region large parts did not really belong to ancient israel their hold on the southern and northern districts was but slight while in the southwest a wide rich plain along tile the mediterranean was occupied by the warlike philistines who were sometimes more than a match for the hebrew armies israel had in fact little more than the hill country which lay between the jordan on the east and the maritime plain on the west king david in the days of his power looked down from the hill cities of benjamin lust just north of jerusalem upon philistine enemies only 27 miles off on the one side and looked across the jordan to enemies about as far oft off on the other nearly all the events in the history of israel that are recorded in the old testament hripp happened ened within a territory no bigger than the state of connecticut whose area Is square miles and into hardly any other country has there been crowded from the days of abraham till our own so go much history that Is to say so many events that have been recorded and deserve to be recorded in the annals of mankind its smallness Small nesa to i visible nor Is it only that Pal palestine estIve Is really a small country the traveler constantly feels as he be moves about that it Is a small country from the heights a few miles north of jerusalem he be sees looking northward a far off summit currying snow for eight months in the year it la Is kernion ncr Ner nion nearly feet high li hermon ermon whose fountains feed the rivers of damascus dut cut hermon Is outside the territory of israel altogether standing in the land of the syrians so too it is of lebanon we are apt to thin of that mountain mass as within the country because Is also Is frequently mentioned in the psalms and the prophets Prop liets but the two ranges of lebanon also rise beyond the frontiers of israel lying ieleen the syrians Syri ins of damasus damascus and the Phoenicia ns of he west ra palestine lestIne Is a country poor in arly any natural resources there are practically no minerals no coal no iron no DO copper no silver though hough recently some home oil has been discoN discovered ered in the jordan valley neither ore are there any larg langr fort foresti and though the land may hilie hae been better wooded in the days of joshua than it is now there Is little reason to think that the woods were ot of trees sufficiently large to constitute a kource of wealth A compa comparatively small area is fit for to on n arab tribe that had through a barren wilderness for 40 weary years canaan callann may well ell have teemed seemed a delightful possession but many a county in ili toms ioa many a department part ment in france fiance could raise more grain or wine than all ali the holy land there Is one stretch of fertile level land 20 miles long and from 3 to C G miles wide the lie plain of ENdri elon but with this exception it Is only in ili the bottoms and on the loner loer slopes lopes f of a few valleys chiefly in the territory of ephraim Ephr aliu from bethel northward and along the shores of the bay of acre that one ws cornfields and art olive yards and little mile Is now grown crown such wealth as the country hom h conal consists ats in its pastures pasture and the et en bassion D land noting floming with milli mill and honey appropriately describes the best it has to offer tor for sheep and goats can thrive on the thin herbage that ewers the hills and the numerous aromatic plants furnish p plenty lenty of ex excellent ellent food for the boes bees but it Is nearly all thin pasture for the ian land d is dry and the soil mostly shallow the sheep and goats vastly outnumber th thi i o oxen oen en woody dashan bashan on the east cast side of jordan is still the region where one must took look for the strong bulls palestine Is not a beautiful country the cla classical scholar finds charms everywhere in greece a land consecrated to him by the genius of 0 poets and philosophers although a great part of greece Is painfully dry and bare so too the traveler who brings a mind suffused by reverence and piety to spots hal hallowed loed by religious assoil associations sees the landscapes of the noly holy land through a golden have hane that makes them lovely but the scenery of the holy land taken as a whole is inferior both in form and in color to that of northern and middle italy to that of norway and scotland to that of the coasts of asia jl minor ln r to that of many parts of california and washington the hills bills are flat topped ridges with a monotonous sky line very few of the them in S showing bowing any distinctive shape not a peak anywhere and tabor the only summit recognizable by its form they are all composed of gray or red dish gray limestone bare of wood and often too stony for tillage between the stones or piles or rock there are low shrubs and in the few weeks of spring masses of brilliant flowers give rich hues to the landscape but for the rest of the year all Is gray or brown the grass Is withered away or Is scorched brown and scarcely any foliage Is seen on the tops or upper slopes of the rolling hills it Is only in some of the alie valleys that one finds villages nestling among olive groves and orchards where plums and peach and almond blossoms make spring lovely few wells well and spring arid indeed Is the land the traveler says with the psalmist my soul longs in a dry parched land vibe wherein rein no water Is wells are few springs still fewer and of brooks there are practically none for the stony channels at the bottom of the geets have no water vater except after a winter rainstorm there may probably have been a more copious rainfall 20 or 30 centuries ago when more woods clothed the hillsides hill sides and the country would then have been more inore pleasing to northern eyes to which mountains are dear dac ir because rills make inake music and icen boughs ae in the wind to this general description there are certain exceptions which must musi not lot be forgotten the high ridge of mount canuel rises grandly from the seu and on its land side breaks down in bold declivities and deep glens upon the valley through which the kishon alshon an almost perennial stream finds its way to the bay of acre here upon the bloies ot of a long ridge on the other side of the kishon there Is a forest of ancient holm oaks all the lie ronie mole beautiful because it Is the one considerable stretch of natural wood in the whole hole country west of jordan Ju rilan if palestine Ia lehtine Is not a land of natural wealth nor a land of natural beauty what is it what ore are the impressions impress loua which aich tile the traveler who tries to see it exactly as it Is carries away with him roughly summed ill 1111 they are these cues caes tombs ruins battlefields sites hallowed by traditions all bathed in ili an atmosphere of legend and enarvel never was there a country not being all in absolute desert so stony the hillsides hill sides seem one mass 0 loose rocks rock larger or sin sint aller the olive yards and vineyards ine yards s nie an full of stones atones even the cornfields except tn in the alluvial soil of 0 the plain of Esdra elon and along the sandy coast coalt seem to have more pebbles than earth so that one wonders low crops so good as one sometimes spes can spring up caves are everywhere for limestone Is tile prevailing rock and it Is the rort in which the percolation of rain makes mahe clefts and hollows and caverns mo mos s frequent infrequent |