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times, nor to see farther than we are necessarily led by the course of events; but it is impossible not to be struck with the aspect of that grandest of all moral phenomena which is suspended upon the history and actual condition of the sons of Jacob. At this moment they are nearly as numerous as when David swayed the sceptre of the Twelve Tribes; their expectations are the same, their longings are the same; and on whatever part of the earth's surface they have their abode, their eyes and their faith are all pointed in the same direction,—to the land of their fathers, and the holy city where they worshipped. Though rejected by God and persecuted by man, they have not once, during eighteen hundred long years, ceased to repose confidence in the promises made by Jehovah to the founders of their nation; and although the heart has often been sick, and the spirit faint, they have never relinquished the hope of that bright reversion in the latter days, which is once more to establish the Lord's house on the top of the mountains, and to make Jerusalem the glory of the whole world.

CHAPTER IX.

The Natural History of Palestine.

Travellers too much neglect Natural History-Maundrell, Hasselquist, Clarke GEOLOGY-Syrian Chain-Libanus-Calcareous Rocks-Granite-Trap-Volcanic Remains-Chalk-Marine

Exuvia-Precious Stones-METEOROLOGY-Climate of Palestine-Winds-Thunder-Clouds-Waterspouts-Ignis Fatuus -ZOOLOGY-Scripture Animals-The Hart-The RoebuckFallow-deer-Wild-goat-Pygarg-Wild-ox-Chamois-Uni-Wild-ass-Wild-goats of the Rock-Saphan, or ConeyMouse-Porcupine-Jerboa-Mole-Bat-BIRDS—Eagle — Ossifrage-Ospray-Vulture-Kite-Raven-Owl-Night

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hawk-Cuckoo-Hawk-Little Owl-Cormorant Great OwlSwan-Pelican-Gier Eagle-Stork-Heron-Lapwing-Hoopoe-AMPHIBIA AND REPTILES-Serpents known to the Hebrews-Ephe-Chephir-Acshub-Pethen-Tzeboa-Tzim

maon-Tzepho-Kippos-Shephiphon - Shachal-Saraph, the Flying-serpent-Cockatrice' Eggs-The Scorpion-Sea-monsters, or Seals FRUITS AND PLANTS-Vegetable Productions of Palestine The Fig-tree-Palm-Olive-Cedars of Libanus— Wild-grapes-Balsam of Aaron-Thorn of Christ.

EVERY one who writes on the Holy Land has occasion to regret that travellers in general have paid so little attention to its geological structure and natural productions. Maundrell, it is true, was not entirely destitute of physical science; but the few remarks which he makes are extremely vague and unconnected, and, not being expressed in the language of system, throw very little light on the researches of the natural philosopher or the geologist.

Hasselquist had more professional learning, and has accordingly contributed, more than any of his predecessors, to our acquaintance with Palestine, viewed in its relations to the animal, the vegetable, and the mineral kingdoms. Still the reader of his Voyages and Travels in the Levant cannot fail to perceive, that some of the branches of natural knowledge, which are now cultivated with the greatest care, were in his day very little improved; and more especially, that they were deficient in accuracy of description and distinctness of arrangement. Dr Clarke's observations are perhaps more scientific than those of the Swedish naturalist just named, and particularly in the departments of mineralogy and geology, to which he had devoted a large share of his attention. But even in his works we look in vain for a satisfactory treatise on the mountainrocks of Palestine, on the geognostic formation of that interesting part of Western Asia, or on the fossil treasures which its strata are understood to envelope. We are therefore reduced to the necessity of collecting from various authors, belonging to different countries and successive ages, the scattered notices which appear in their works, and of arranging them according to a plan most likely to suit the comprehension of the common reader.

SECTION I.-GEOLOGY.

At first view it would appear that the ridges of Palestine are all a ramification of Mount Taurus. But the proper Syrian chain begins on the south of Antioch, at the huge peak of Casius, which shoots up to the heavens its tapering summit, covered with

thick forests. The same chain, under various names, follows the direction of the eastern shore of the Mediterranean, at no greater distance, generally speaking, than twenty-four miles from its waters. Mount Libanus forms its most elevated summit. At length it is divided into two branches, of which the one looks westward to the sea, the other, which bounds the Plain of Damascus, verges in the direction of the desert and the banks of the Euphrates. Hermon, whose lofty top condenses the moisture of the atmosphere, and gives rise to the dews so much celebrated in the Sacred Writings, stands between Heliopolis and the capital of Syria. The latter ridge received from the Greeks the denomination of Anti-Libanus, —a name unknown among the natives, and which, being employed somewhat arbitrarily by historians and topographers, has occasioned considerable obscurity in their writings.

The hills in this part of Syria are composed of a calcareous rock, having a whitish colour, is extremely hard, and which rings in the ear when smartly struck with a hammer. The same description applies to the masses that surround Jerusalem, which on the one hand stretch to the River Jordan, and on the other extend to the Plain of Acre and Jaffa. Like all limestone strata, they present a great number of caverns, to which, as places of retreat, frequent allusion is made in the books of Samuel and of the Kings. There is one near Damascus, capable of containing four thousand men; and it must have been in a similar recess that David and his men encountered the ill-fated Saul when pursued by him on the hills of the wild-goats.

The mountains that skirt the Valley of the

Dead Sea, present granite and those other rocks which, according to the system of Werner, characterize the oldest or primitive formation. Mount Sinai is a member of the same group, and exhibits mineral qualities of a similar nature, extending to a certain distance on both sides of the Arabian Gulf. It is probable that this region, at a remote epoch, was the theatre of immense volcanoes, the effects of which may still be traced along the banks of the Lower Jordan, and more especially in the lake itself. The warm baths at Tabaria show that the same cause still exists, although much restricted in its operation, an inference which is amply confirmed by the lavas, the bitumen, and pumice, which continue to be thrown ashore by the waves of Asphaltites.

Dr Clarke remarks that in the neighbourhood of Cana there are several basaltic appearances. The extremities of columns, prismatically formed penetrated the surface of the soil, so as to render the path very rough and unpleasant. These marks of regular, or of irregular crystallization, generally denote, according to his opinion, the vicinity of water lying beneath their level. The traveller having passed over a series of successive plains, resembling in their gradation the order of a staircase, observes, as he descends to the inferior stratum upon which the water rests, that where rocks are disclosed the symptoms. of crystallization have taken place, and then the prismatic configuration is commonly denoted basaltic. Such an appearance, therefore, in the approach to the Lake of Tiberias is only a parallel to similar phenomena exhibited by rocks near the Lakes of Locarno and Bolsenna in Italy, by those of the Wenner Lake in Sweden, by the

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