Canon Tristram then passed on to a bird's-eye view of the general character of the country. The frame and lighting of a picture have much to do with its value. So the setting of the Bible is most important. In no other country beside Palestine can so many phenomena of different latitudes be seen in so small a compass. Here are all maritime phenomena, here are rich plains, wild hill-country, and eternal snow. The depression of the Jordan Valley is a phenomenon absolutely unique. There you may find plants and animals that belong to Nubia, Central Africa, Madras, and Ceylon. The consequence is that the writers of the Bible were familiar with the phenomena of the whole world. Had the Bible been written in India how impossible would have been the imagery of the snow and hail! One night beyond the Jordan the lecturer was encamped under palm trees, the next, after a hard day's ride, he was encamped under Scotch firs! The Bible was written in the one land in the whole world which provides illustrations that appeal to every inhabitant of the globe.
Objections are made by some to the large population claimed for Palestine in old times. The Canon pointed out that the terrace cultivation was quite equal to that of Malta. There is no reason why in Solomon's time Palestine should not have been as thickly populated as Belgium and Barbadoes to-day. Rain was then much more plentiful. Native forests existed everywhere. The evergreens, the ilex, the sweet bay, drew down much moisture. When these were cut down their place was taken by the olive-tree, which brings down more moisture than any other tree.
An intelligent study of the fauna of Palestine may check some of the results of the higher criticism. In Leviticus Moses gives a list of animals which he repeats thirty-eight years after in the Book of Deuteronomy, with the addition of nine new species. Why this addition? Because the first list was compiled only nine months after the children of Israel left Egypt, while the second was made after their long sojourn in the wilderness. Now, while the Canon was travelling across the Jordan he picked up all the Arabic names he could find of animals and birds, with the result that eight out of nine of these added species were found to be creatures that now exist in the desert and which only could have existed in the desert and are not found in Egypt. This change in the lists is far better accounted for by the view that Moses wrote the Pentateuch than by the theory that it was compiled by Ezra one thousand years after. The Jews were neither travellers nor naturalists.
On Tuesday the pilgrimage proceeded to Jericho. On arriving at the "Good Samaritan's Inn" we found luncheon ready in the great court-yard. Canon Tristram's lecture-talks were intended to follow the route taken, so after lunch, standing against a big rock, with the attentive pilgrims sitting and standing below, above, and around him, the traveller of almost half a century began his interesting account. We were now, he said, in the Wilderness of Judæa. The ancient kingdom was divided into three parts—the Hill Country, the South
