rise; it
would cover, first the plain of the Jordan, then the lake of Galilee,
then the middle Jordan between this lake and that of Huleh (the ancient
Merom); and, finally, it would encroach, northwards, along the course of
the upper Jordan, and, southwards, up the Wady Arabah, until it reached
some 260 feet above the level of the Mediterranean, when it would
attain a permanent level, by sending any superfluity through the pass
of Jezrael to swell the waters of the Kishon, and flow thence into the
Mediterranean.

Reverse the process, in consequence of the excess of loss by evaporation
over gain by inflow, which must have set in as the climate of Syria
changed after the end of the pleistocene epoch, and (without taking into
consideration any other circumstances) the present state of things must
eventually be reached--a concentrated saline solution in the deepest
part of the valley--water, rather more charged with saline matter than
ordinary fresh water, in the lower Jordan and the lake of Galilee--fresh
waters, still largely derived from the snows of Hermon, in the upper
Jordan and in Lake Huleh. But, if the full state of the Jordan valley
marks the glacial epoch, then it follows that the excavation of that
valley by atmospheric agencies must have occupied an immense antecedent
time--a large part, perhaps the whole, of the pliocene epoch; and we
are thus forced to the conclusion that, since the miocene epoch, the
physical conformation of the Holy Land has been substantially what it is
now. It has been more or less rained upon, searched by earthquakes
here and there, partially overflowed by lava streams, slowly raised
(relatively to the sea-level) a few hundred feet. But there is not
a shadow of ground for supposing that, throughout all this time,
terrestrial animals have ceased to inhabit a large part of its surface;
or that, in many parts, they have been, in any respect, incommoded by
the changes which have taken place.

The evidence of the general stability of the physical conditions of
Western Asia, which is furnished by Palestine and by the Euphrates
Valley, is only fortified if we extend our view northwards to the Black
Sea and the Caspian. The Caspian is a sort of magnified replica of the
Dead Sea. The bottom of the deepest part of this vast inland mere is
about 3000 feet below the level of the Mediterranean, while its surface
is lower by 85 feet. At present, it is separated, on the west, by wide
spaces of dry l