and the magnificence of the greatest of its ruins. As these remain to challenge the most splendid structure of modern cities, and as the frequency of ruins, betokening from their close vicinity what may be called congregated cities, is unparalleled by that of modern towns in any kingdom, so there is not another hill country of Europe which could now be said to drop down new wine, as that of Judea did, and, according to the word of the Lord, shall do again. In many places, and for many miles in extent, it is terraced throughout. On reaching it, the astonishment previously excited at the sight of barren mountains, seemingly unsusceptible of culture, is changed into still greater amazement at the sight of steep hills, converted into very numerous horizontal beds, rising successively, till the top of the mountain forms the last, and ranging continuously on both sides of the valleys, till every spot is embraced within them, from end to end, and from the summit to the base. The first hill on which the writer narrowly looked, was of a conical form, wholly encircled with successive terraces, which, doubtless, repaid the immense labour of their construction by a vintage or a kindred produce, which no plain within a like circumference could even equal. After having passed through a long valley, terraced on both sides, the extremity of which was enclosed, as if by a wide spread amphitheatre of terraced hills, on ascending a mountain pass he counted sixty-seven terraces, which occupied successively the whole side of the hill, while considerably higher mountains were manifestly terraced all over by a proportionally greater number. The idea, as expressed in the Evidence of Prophecy, which the author had previously formed of these terraces was, that the soil had been accumulated with astonishing labour, as stated by Dr Clarke, and the impression on his mind was that it had been carried from the rich plains beneath. In some instances they seemingly have thus been rendered productive, where the projecting calcareous rock, of which these mountains consist, afforded no space for soil prior to the formation of terraces; and in some such cases it is observable that the terrace, or top of the rock when cut, inclined into the mountain, or downwards, for the better retaining, perhaps, the moisture, and the soil. But, in general, so far as witnessed, with comparatively unnoticeable exceptions, the soil is that of the hill country itself; and on raising some large stones, they were found to be imbedded in rich dark earth, a sharp light soil best adapted for the vine, more than a foot in ascertained depth. In ancient times, the numberless terraces, on which such astonishing labour has been expended, even without the accumulation of soil, doubtless lacked not a sufficiency to cover the now barren mountains with fruit for the people Israel, when the scene must have been as beauteous as now it is blasted, and as fertile as now it is desolate. On inspecting the terraces, the marvel is not, as when the hills are approached, how they could ever have been crowned with plenty, but how they could have lain so long and so utterly desolate. And just as the labour would now be little to build a city of hewn stones, lying ready on the spot, so the labour would now be comparatively less, not by a tenth, not by a hundredth, or sometimes not even by a thousandth part of what it originally was, to make the vines and other fruit-trees shoot forth their branches and yield their fruits, were the good time of the God of Israel come to turn again to the mountains of Israel. Whether in the poorest or the richest regions of the land, terraces every where abound in places where the form of the hills suited their construction, and the pro duce was thereby ameliorated or increased in an inconceivable degree. "Even in these parts," says Dr Robinson, "where all is now desolate, as in the rugged sloping mountains between Jerusalem and the Dead Sea, which present nothing but an aspect of dreary desolation, there are everywhere traces of the hands of the men of other days,— terraces, walls, stones gathered along the paths, frequent cisterns, and the like. Most of the hills exhibit the remains of terraces built up around them, the undoubted sites of former cultivation." The city of Samaria, situated on an oblong isolated hill at the head of the fat calley, trusted in its strength, and gloried in its riches. Purchased, as was the hill on which it stood, by Omri of Shemer, it is reserved, like all the mountains of Samaria, and the land over which it reigned, as the free gift of the Lord to his people Israel. The beasts of the field, according to the word of the Lord, now feed on the grassy terraces, which encircle the hill, like beds of down, all ready for cultivation; but like those around it, whose terraced sides formed hanging gardens beautifully closing in the rich valley, they are yet reserved for their primitive use, and for their ancient occupants; for in the same chapter in which the prophet announces the new covenant which the Lord will make with the house of Israel and the house of Judah, it is written, The virgin of Israel shall yet plant vines upon the mountains of Samaria: the planters shall plant and eat them as common things. For, saith the Lord, I am a Father to Israel, and Ephraim is my first born. They shall possess the fields of Samaria. Beyond the hills of Judea and the mountains of Samaria, and the ancient borders of the land in 3 1 Robinson and Smith, ii. 187. "Jeremiah xxxi. 5. 3 Obadiah 19. which the Israelites dwelt, "in the Lebanon of the Druses and the Maronites, the rocks, now abandoned to fir-trees and brambles, present us," says Volney, "in a thousand places with terraces, which prove that they were infinitely better cultivated and much more populous than in our days." The hills near Baalbec were anciently covered with vines; and in the days of Strabo, Laodicea on the coast, near to the extremity of the promised land, chiefly supplied Alexandria with its abundant wines, the vineyards in its vicinity then reaching almost to the very summits of the hills. If we return again from the north of Syria to the south of Judea, and look from end to end of the land, gleaning grapes, though no more, may be found throughout it, when the vintage is past; and the terraces, with few exceptions, are bare and bereft of all but the creeping thorns, which closely cover them, and conceal the soil, while the rocky fronts are exposed to view. The spies who went up from the wilderness of Zin to search the land whether it was good or bad, ascended by the south, and after traversing it came to Hebron. And the vale of Hebron, near to the cave of Machpelah, may yet, in the largeness and excellence of its grapes, outvie the environs of Bourdeaux, and the richest spots on the banks of the Rhine or of the Rhone. They still abound in the gardens near to the burying-place of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and cluster in all their native richness there, as if waiting the time, when the covenant made with these patriarchal fathers shall be fulfilled, and when their children, faithful like themselves, shall drink new wine in another and better kingdom than the world has seen since the weeping parents of the human race, cast out of paradise, first tilled the earth that had been cursed for their sakes. Immense bunches of grapes, unripe, and not of full size, intermingled with the bright flowers of the pomegranate, hung over the fences of the vineyards of Hebron, when passed by the writer and the friends who accompanied him; who were there informed, that these gardens sometimes produced bunches of grapes, when fully ripe, of six pounds weight; and on a succeeding day, Sir Moses Montefiore got a bunch of grapes about a yard in length. On a plain near to Hebron, supposed to be that of Mamre, stands pre-eminent among other trees, one which bears the name of Abraham's oak, that yet remains as a witness of the goodliness of the land. The circumference of its trunk, as carefully measured, is twenty-two feet nine inches, and where the branches separate, twenty-five feet nine inches. It spreads nearly equally around to a great extent, the circumference of its branches being two hundred and fifty-six feet, and the diameter, from their opposite extremities, eighty-one feet, thus covering an area of about five hundred square yards. Tadmor and Baalbec, built by Solomon, though fallen, are magnificent in their ruins; but the pools of Hebron and the pools of Solomon, most substantially and finely constructed, are yet entire. The former has ever watered the city where David first reigned; and slight repairs of the aqueduct by Mehemet Ali have made the water to flow from the latter, a distance of six miles, to the city where his throne was finally established. The larger pool of Hebron is a hundred and thirty-three feet on each side; nineteen hundred and forty-three square yards of superficial extent, and its depth above twenty feet. Of the pools of Solomon, the average length of the first is three hundred and eightyfour feet, the breadth two hundred and thirty-two, |