CONCLUSION.

FROM the previous details, a few concluding words may suffice for a succinct delineation of Syria, or the promised land of Israel, which may but be given in the words of Volney. "It was reserved for him," says Malte Brun, one of the first authorities in geography, "to present the world with a complete picture of Syria." So complete was that picture -inferior, in the variety of its discriminating features, to none but that which was drawn by the prophets of oldthat, as we have elsewhere shown, he has supplied many most precise and literal illustrations of the prophecies which have gone forth against it. But in his day the land had not fully reached its last prophetic degree of desolation and depopulation. The population, rated by Volney at two millions and a half, is now estimated at half that amount.

The soil in the plain of Syria "is rich and loamy, and indicates the greatest fecundity. In the territory of Aleppo it resembles very fine brick-dust. Almost everywhere else the earth is brown, and as fine as garden mould."*

The difference of latitude between the different extremities of Syria-equal to that from Cornwall to Caithnessgives rise of itself to variety of temperature; but other natural causes far more powerfully tend, even in continuous localities, to diversify the climate in a very remarkable, if not unparalleled degree. The palms in the deep valley of the Jordan flourished in the greatest luxuriance in a tropical climate, while the magnificent cedars of Lebanon show how goodly is the produce of the land in its highest elevations, and in the vicinity of eternal snow.

Along the coast of Syria, and at Tripoli in particular, according to Volney, "the lowest to which the thermometer falls in winter is eight or nine degrees above the freezing point (40° or 41° of Fahrenheit). In winter, therefore, all the chain of mountains is covered with snow, while the lower country is always freed from it, or, at least, it lies a very short time. In the lower plains, the winter is so mild along the seacoast that the orange, palm, banana, and other deli

Volney's Travels, chap. xxi,, ◊ 6.

cate trees flourish in the open air. In Syria different climates are thus united under the same sky; and in a narrow compass, pleasures and productions, which Nature has elsewhere dispersed at great distances, are collected. With us, for instance, seasons are divided by months, there by hours. If in Saide or Tripoli we feel the heat of summer troublesome, in six hours we are in the neighbouring mountains, in the temperature of March (in France); or, again, if chilled in the frosts of December at Beshirri, a day's journey brings us to the coast, amid the flowers of May. The Arabian poets have therefore said that the Sannim (Lebanon) bears winter on his head, spring upon his shoulders, and autumn in his bosom, while summer lies sleeping at his feet. 66 'I have myself," says Volney, "experienced this figurative observation during the eight months I resided at the monastery of Marhanna, seven leagues from Beyrout. At the end of February, at Tripoli, a variety of vegetables were in perfection, and many flowers in full bloom. The early figs were past at Beyrout when they were first gathered with us."

To this advantage, which perpetuates enjoyments by their succession, Syria adds a second, that of multiplying them by the variety of its productions. Were nature aided by art, those of the most distant countries might be produced within twenty leagues. At present, notwithstanding the barbarism of a government which is inimical to all industry and improvement, we are astonished at the variety. Besides wheat, barley, rye, beans, and the cotton plant, which is (was) everywhere cultivated, we find many useful and agreeable productions, appropriated to different situations. In Palestine sesamum abounds, from which they procure oil, and dourra (a kind of pulse) as good as that of Egypt. Maize thrives in the light soil of Baalbec; and even rice is cultivated with success on the borders of the marshy countries of Havula. They have lately begun to cultivate sugarcanes in the gardens of Saide and of Beyrout, equal to those of the Delta. Indigo grows without cultivation on the banks of the Jordan, in the country of Bisan, and needs but care to improve the quality. Tobacco is now cultivated throughout all the mountains. As for trees, the olive of Provence grows at Antioch, and at Ramlah to the height of the beech. In the white mulberry-tree consists the wealth of the whole country of the Druses, by the beautiful silk which it produces; while the vine, supported by poles, or winding about