Buried Cities and Bible Countries

by George St. Clair

“We find in Palestine forty-three species of fishes, of which only eight belong to the ordinary ichthyological fauna of the Mediterranean rivers. But these belong to the rivers of the coast. In the Jordan system only one species out of thirty-six belongs to the ordinary Mediterranean fauna, viz., Blennius lupulus. Two others, Chromis niloticus and Clarias macracanthus, are Nilotic. Seven other species occur in other rivers of South-Western Asia, the Tigris, Euphrates, &c. Ten more are found in other parts of Syria, chiefly in the Damascus lakes, and the remaining sixteen species of the families Chromidæ, Cyprinodontidæ, and Cyprinidæ, are peculiar to the Jordan, its affluents, and its lakes. This analysis points at once to the close affinity of the Jordan with the rivers of Tropical Africa. The affinity is not only of species, but of genera, for Chromis and Hemichromis are peculiarly Ethiopian forms, while the other species are identical with, or very closely allied to, the fishes from other fresh waters of Syria. But the African forms are a very large proportion of the whole, and considering the difficulty of transportation in the case of fresh water fishes, the peculiarities of this portion of the fauna are of great significance.

“The fluviatile fishes claim special attention, dating, as they probably do, from the earliest time after the elevation of the country from the Eocene ocean. In the Foraminifera, mentioned above as found in the Dead Sea sand, such as Gr. capreolus, we have the relics of the inhabitants of that early sea. But of the living inhabitants we must place the Jordanic fishes as the very earliest, and these, we have seen, form a group far more distinct and divergent from that of the surrounding region than in any other class of existing life. During the epochs subsequent to the Eocene, owing to the unbroken isolation of the basin, there have been no opportunities for the introduction of new forms, nor for the further dispersion of the old ones. These forms, as we have seen, bear a striking affinity to those of the fresh-water lakes and rivers of Eastern Africa, even as far south as the Zambezi. But the affinity is in the identity of genera, Chromis and Hemichromis being exclusively African, while the species are rather representative than identical.

“The solution appears to be that during the Meiocene and Pleiocene periods the Jordan basin formed the northernmost of a large system of fresh-water lakes, extending from north to south, of which, in the earlier part of the epoch, perhaps the Red Sea, and certainly the Nile Basin, the Nyanza, the Nyassa, and the Tanganyika lakes, and the feeders of the Zambezi, were members. During that warm period, a fluviatile ichthyological fauna was developed suitable to its then conditions, consisting of representative, and perhaps frequently identical species, throughout the area under consideration.

“The advent of the glacial period was, like its close, gradual. Many species must have perished under the change of conditions. The hardiest survived, and some perhaps have been gradually modified to meet those new conditions. Under this strict isolation it could hardly be otherwise; and however severe the climate may have been, that of the Lebanon, with its glaciers probably corresponding with the present temperature of the Alps at a proportional elevation (regard being had to the difference of latitude), the fissure of the Jordan being, as we certainly know, as much depressed below the level of the ocean as it is at present; there must have been an exceptionally warm temperature in its waters in which the existing ichthyological fauna could survive.”

Such facts as these tell us that Palestine is not to be regarded as a European country, but rather as an African outlier, while it has also strong affinities with Asia, as proved by others of these fishes. In fact, it stands in the midst between three continents, and is, in a very important sense, the centre of the world. Dr Tristram, our best authority in this department, shows us how Palestine contains an epitome of the life of the world, and does so just because it includes almost every variety of climate.

Linnæus said that we know more of the botany and zoology of farther India than we do of those of Palestine. It is pleasant to reflect that, to some extent, this reproach has been removed. It always entered into the plans of the Palestine Exploration Society to study the natural history of the Holy Land; and although they have not been able to equip and maintain a party of naturalists, charged with this business alone, some of their officers have gathered interesting facts incidentally. Other inquirers, like Rev. Wm. Houghton and Mr Thaddeus Mason, have been usefully engaged on the same work. Mr H. Chichester Hart, who accompanied Professor E. Hull through the Arabah and Southern Palestine, has written an interesting volume on “The Animals mentioned in the Bible.” But it is to Rev. Dr Tristram we are chiefly indebted. The Memoirs of the Survey include a magnificent volume on the “Fauna and Flora of Western Palestine,” in which he works out his valuable series of investigations, and besides giving facts and details, treats the subject in a large philosophical way, as he does also in his lectures. “You have on Lebanon and Hermon,” he says, “a climate like that of the Alps, or two-thirds of the way up Mont Blanc. You have on the tops of Lebanon and Hermon an almost arctic climate, and you have a fauna and a flora (animals and plants) corresponding to that climate. You know that when you descend a coal-pit 1300 feet deep you get into a very warm temperature indeed. Now the Dead Sea is 1300 feet below the level of the Mediterranean, and the consequence is that you have around the Dead Sea a tropical or sub-tropical climate, and you have sub-tropical products.

“At the northern end of the Holy Land you find yourself at the starting point of the Jordan, which, being 1000 feet above the Mediterranean at the grotto of Banias, descends so rapidly that it is only a few feet above the sea level at Lake Huleh. Mount Hermon rises abruptly from its base near Lake Huleh (the ancient Waters of Merom). Although Hermon is only 10,000 feet high, I am not aware of any mountain which rises so suddenly or so directly from its base. Take, for instance, Chamounix. If you want to go to the top of Mont Blanc, you know that Chamounix is many hundred feet above the platform of the Mediterranean. It is true that Mont Blanc is many thousand feet higher than Mount Hermon, but from its immediate base it is not so high. When you get up to the Grand Mulets you are not so far from the summit of Mont Blanc as you are at Lake Huleh from the summit of Hermon. The consequence of this is that you have brought together in that spot a greater contrast of produce, animal and vegetable, than I have found anywhere else. You have the arctic climate of the north on the tops of the mountains, and a tropical climate in the Jordan Valley, where, in the month of January, I have been glad to sleep in the open air, the thermometer never being below 80° at midnight. At the east and south you have the dry sandy desert; so that you have four distinct climates within view of each other. I can stand on any of the hills of Judea and see the snow-capped tops of Hermon and Lebanon, and look over this vast desert eastward and down to the seething tropical valley of the Dead Sea.

“Now, with all that, there is nothing in the physical character of that country which is striking or phenomenal, as people would call it. It is about the most commonplace and ordinary country in the world that I have ever seen. There are no startling features, but there is endless variety in it, and I cannot help thinking that there is something very providential in the extraordinary variety which is brought together within a district of the Holy Land, which is not so large as the six northern counties of England; because I remember that it was chosen as the country in which was written a Book, which was to be for the teaching and guidance of all mankind in every country and in every age; and I know no spot in the world in which there could have been found brought together so many phenomena of Nature, maritime and desert, mountain and plain, hill and valley, tropical, temperate, and arctic, as are brought together there within the space of a few miles. And when I remember that that Book was to be for the teaching of all men, for all time, I feel that there is something providential in that ordering of circumstances which led to the selection of the only spot, as far as we know, in the whole world, in which there is such a great variety of objects for the illustration, comparison, and elucidation of Holy Writ as in that country of the Holy Land. Often, when I have been in that country, on one of its hills, and have noticed the variety of scenery brought into my view at one time, I have thought to myself, ‘What would the Bible have been if its pages had been written by men who had lived only in the monotonous valley of the Nile? What would they have been able to pen in the way of illustration which would have come home to the heart of the English peasant?’ Again, if that Book were written by men who were only familiar with the phenomena of Arabian deserts, how could it have come home to those who dwell on the sea? Had it been written by inhabitants of tropical India, how would it have come home to those who are familiar with ‘snow and frost and vapour, fulfilling His will?’ In fact, there are illustrations taken from every kind of natural phenomena, and yet none of them are very marked or startling.”

[Authorities and Sources:—“Palestine in its Physical Aspects.” Rev. Canon Tristram, F. R. S. Survey Memoirs: “The Fauna and Flora.” Rev. Canon Tristram. “The Animals mentioned in the Bible.” Henry Chichester Hart, B.A., F.L.S.]