Tent Work in Palestine: A Record of Discovery and Adventure

by C. R. Conder

From this extract it is clear that rain was expected in October, at which time the first showers now begin, and was not expected later than the middle of April, when the “latter rain” or spring showers now fall; between these limits the rainy season is continuous, the heaviest storms being in January, and the average annual rainfall about twenty inches. It is also recorded that years of drought have, from the earliest times, occurred at intervals (as mentioned in the history of Abraham, or of Jacob, or in the time of Ahab), just as dry years still afflict the country from time to time.

As regards the seasons, and the character and distribution of the water-supply, natural or artificial, there is thus, apparently, no reason to suppose that any change has occurred; and with respect to the annual rainfall (as observed for the last ten years), it is only necessary to note that, were the old cisterns cleaned and mended, and the beautiful tanks and aqueducts repaired, the ordinary fall would be quite sufficient for the wants of the inhabitants, and for irrigation.

The climate has, however, to all appearance materially changed for the worse. The plains of Jericho are no longer a “region fit for gods,” and the climate of the maritime plains, in autumn, is little less than deadly; but this would indicate, not a decrease, but, if anything, an increase, in the amount of rain, as the miasma is due to the stagnant water collecting in marshes and pools. The main cause of the malarious nature of the climate, seems to be the neglect of proper drainage. The splendid works of the Romans are in ruins; the great rock-cuttings, which let out to the sea the water now soaking in the marshes of Sharon, are filled up with earth; Herod’s aqueducts, which irrigated the plains of Jericho, are destroyed, and no attempt is ever made to enforce sanitary regulations, or to promote public drainage or irrigation works.

Turning next to the question of the decrease of timber, it is important first to obtain a clear idea of the character of the old vegetation described in the Bible. It will then appear that the change is not one of kind, but only of degree.

The ordinary words, used in the Hebrew of the Old Testament, for the wild growth of the country are three—Choresh, Jaar, and Etz, none of which are now employed in the modern nomenclature. Choresh means “tangled,” and would thus apply to copse, rather than to timber-forest; Jaar signifies “luxuriant,” and would also refer to thickets of dwarf trees and of shrubs, quite as well as to forest trees; Etz is a “strong tree,” but this does not imply that the tree forms one of a large number, for the word is often used of single trees.

The wild growth of the country now consists generally of single trees, and of scrub or copse. In Galilee there are good-sized trees, but none in Judea, excepting solitary sacred oaks and terebinths, sycamores, and carob trees. The western slopes of the watershed are thickly clothed with dark lentisk bushes, dwarf oak, spurge laurels, hawthorn, and a variety of other shrubs, which spread over the ridges, and form in parts an impenetrable tangle. There is every reason to suppose that this is the kind of vegetation which, in the earlier times, existed in uncultivated districts, for it seems unlikely that, there was ever much greater thickness of soil on the ridges, such as would be required for forest trees.

It must not, however, be supposed that Palestine is entirely devoid of woods. A thick forest of oak extends between Carmel and Nazareth, with underwood below the trees in parts. An open woodland occurs on the low hills south of Carmel, and in the northern part of the plain of Sharon—remains of the “mighty wood” of Strabo, and the “Forest of Assur” of the twelfth century; from these oaks Sharon takes its Greek name Drumos, and they form some of the prettiest scenery in the Holy Land.

There are indications, throughout the country, of a certain amount of local change in the wild growth, and also of a decrease in the number of trees. The old wine-presses and towers, on Carmel, and in other parts, are now found in the middle of copses, which have evidently spread over ancient cultivated districts; but, on the other hand, there are at present no forest laws, and the peasants hew and even burn down the trees for firewood (Hatab), or cut off the roots (Kormah), which are dug up and also sold for burning; this wanton, and wasteful, annual destruction of the trees, cannot fail to have materially affected the appearance of the land.

The watershed of the country forms the limit of the thickets; the western slopes, exposed to the fresh sea breeze, are covered with shrubs, the eastern are bare and desert; this natural phenomenon is no doubt unchangeable, and a minute examination of the country tends to show that the eastern districts, which are now without wood, were also treeless in Bible times.

The change in productiveness which has really occurred in Palestine is due to decay of cultivation, to decrease of population, and to bad government. It is man, and not Nature, who has ruined the good land in which was “no lack,” and it is therefore within the power of human industry to restore the country to its old condition of agricultural prosperity.