ribing only what they have themselves seen along high-roads from town
to town, under the guidance of professional dragomans and muleteers,
generally deny the existence of forest scenery in Palestine, I may
subjoin some remarks on this particular subject.

Passing over the extensive olive plantations of Gaza, and the Sahara of
twenty square miles between Bayroot and Saida, as not exactly belonging
to the class of timber trees; and the "pine forest" near Bayroot, which
is of artificial formation for accomplishing a preconceived design; also
the neb'k and other thorny trees unfit for mechanical purposes, extending
for miles in wild profusion beyond Jericho, and adding beauty to the
scenery; there remain the veritable forests of Gilead and Bashan beyond
Jordan, seldom visited by European travellers, and the two large forests
in Western Palestine, accessible to the tourists who have leisure and
will for knowing the country.

First, the Belad Besharah to the north, north-east, and east of Tibneen,
and also west and south-west of Safed, through all of which I have
travelled with unceasing admiration and indulgence of the early taste
implanted in childhood among old forests of England. The verdure and the
shade from the Syrian sun were delightful, with the glades and vistas, as
well as the amusing alternations often occurring of stooping to the
horse's neck in passing below the venerable branches that stretched
across the roadway. Those sylvan scenes abound in game, and are known to
contain formidable wild animals.

Secondly, the forest extending in length at least thirty miles from below
Caesarea, northwards to the plain of Battoof beyond Sepphoris. This was
designated the "ingens sylva" by the ancient Romans. I have crossed this
in several lines between Nazareth and Acre or Caiffa; and twice from the
Plain of Sharon to Carmel through the _Wadi 'Arah_ by _Umm el Fahh'm_, a
village, the very name of which ("mother of charcoal") belongs to a
woodland region; besides the line from Carmel to _'Arabeh_.

The portion of this forest immediately contiguous inland from Carmel is
named "the Rohha," clearly from the fragrance exhaled by the pine and
terebinth trees, with the wild herbs upon the hills; this, together with
the dark wooded sides of the long mountain, constitutes "the forest of
his Carmel" mentioned in the boasting of the King of Assyria, (Isa.
xxxvii. 24; also x. 18, in Hebrew,) and it is the _Drymos_ of the
Septuagi