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almost concealed by the noble fir trees that thickly shoot up their dark green heads around them. In the valley, the oleanders, which everywhere border the beds of the winter torrents, grow to a great size,

and are uncommonly superb, especially when covered with their masses of magnificent blossom.

Lord Lindsay thus describes a lovely valley of Gilead, a little to the south of the Jarmuk :-" A

beautiful narrow glen ushered us into a broad valley, richly wooded to the summits of the hills with noble prickly oaks, a few pine trees towering above them. I never should have thought that the shrub which I had seen covering the hills at Hebron, could have attained such size and beauty; yet the leaf of the largest tree is not larger than that of the shrubs. I saw an occasional degub tree, or arbutus, but the prevailing trees were oaks, prickly and broad-leafed. It was forest scenery of the noblest character; next to that of old England, with which none I ever saw can stand comparison."

A similar testimony is borne by other travellers to the grandeur and beauty of this region. Mr. Buckingham gives the following account of the country between Soof, in Gilead, and Om Keiss on the south bank of the Jarmuk, supposed to be the ancient Gadara. "On leaving Soof, we descended into a fine valley, again rising on a gentle ascent, the whole being profusely and beautifully wooded with evergreen oaks below, and pines upon the ridge of the hills above, as well as a variety of the lesser trees. This forest, for it fully deserved the name, continued for about four or five miles, when we opened on a more park-like scenery, the ground showing here and there a rich green turf, and the woods becoming less crowded than before. The soil of the road on which we travelled was clayey, with a fine yellow gravel on the surface; and the track was broad and beaten. As we descended to a lower level, the pines disappeared, and on the side of one of the hills, close to the road on our right, we observed a grotto, carefully hewn down in front,

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with an arched door of entrance, and a small court and cistern before it. On alighting to examine it, we found it to be an excavated tomb, now containing three stone sarcophagi of the usual form and size. Were it not for the actual presence of these, we should have thought it to have been a cell of residence for some solitary living being, rather than a place of sepulture for the dead, as we knew of no ancient site in the immediate vicinity of the place, nor could we find any traces of other tombs near. Although this solitude had been chosen, and wild bushes had so overgrown its front as almost to conceal it from the view, this sepulchre had been violated as well as all the rest, and its cistern was choked, its court partly filled up, and its sarcophagi uncovered and empty. . . . We reached, at length, a beautiful dell, wooded round on all sides, where we found a small encampment of Bedouins striking their tent, and removing from the more open part of the vale to seek shelter beneath the trees, (on account of the rain)... A large fire was kindled, cakes were baked for us, coffee burnt, pounded, and prepared, our pipes lighted, and, in short, every office performed for our comfort and refreshment, by those hospitable wanderers, without a thought of compensation. After a stay of half-an-hour, we departed from hence, continuing, still, through the most beautifully-wooded scenery on all sides. Mr. Bankes, who had seen the whole of England, the greater part of Italy and France, and almost every province of Spain and Portugal, frequently remarked, that, in all his travels, he had met with nothing equal to it, excepting only in some parts of the latter country ..

It is certain that we were perpetually exclaiming at every turn, how rich! how picturesque! how magnificent! how beautiful! and that we both conceived the scenery alone to be quite worth all the hazard and privation of a journey to the eastward of Jordan." *

The beautiful and fertile country thus described was ruled, at the time of Israel's conquest of Canaan, by the redoubtable Og, King of Bashan, a remnant of an ancient gigantic race. His stature is indicated by his bedstead of iron; "nine cubits (about sixteen feet) was the length thereof, and four cubits (or seven feet) the breadth of it." He marched at the head of his warlike people to repel Israel from the border of his land; but notwithstanding his giant strength and prowess, he was discomfited and slain. Thus his country fell into the hands of the children of Israel; a region which, though not more than about ninety miles in length by thirty in breadth, contained "three-score cities. . . . all fenced with high walls, gates, and bars, beside unwalled towns a great many." The enumeration of these cities enables us to form a somewhat definite idea of the power of the Canaanitish nations who were dispossessed before Israel, a power which, we believe, has been greatly underrated. We do not certainly know what the population of these walled cities was, but we have some data for concluding that they were not less numerously inhabited than the average of modern cities. The city of Ai, which seems to have belonged to the Jebusites, was viewed, after the destruction of Jericho, for the purpose of estimating the force needful to capture it. * Palestine, ii. 240.

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The spies returned to Joshua, and said unto him, "Let not all the people go up, but let about 2,000 or 3,000 men go up and smite Ai, and make not all the people to labour thither, for they are but few." The slighting way in which this place was mentioned, clearly shows that its strength was much below the average, yet its population is expressly declared to have been 12,000. But if we assume this to have been the average of the fortified towns of Bashan, and that of the "great many" unwalled towns to have been half as numerous, we have the population of this district alone amounting to upwards of a million.

The land of Bashan became the possession of Gad and the half-tribe of Manasseh, who, with the tribe of Reuben, had petitioned for the excellent pasturelands on the east of Jordan, "because they had cattle." Moses at first thought that their request proceeded from a selfish desire to evade the toils and dangers of the coming war of conquest, and administered a stern reproof. But they disclaimed any such intention, and expressed their readiness to go over armed before the children of Israel, leaving their families and cattle behind them, pledging themselves not to return until the whole inheritance of the land was divided. Their petition was granted on these conditions, which they faithfully performed.

It has been remarked, that the strong desire of Moses "I pray thee, let me go over, and see the good land that is beyond Jordan," contrasted with the unwillingness of the two and a-half tribes, "Bring us not over Jordan," and that they did not see in Canaan a type of the heavenly rest which he, by