are wholly separated from the mountains of the Highlands by the low
tract which stretches across from the Frith of Forth to the Frith of
Clyde, or as the ranges of St. Gall and Appenzell are divided off from
the rest of the Swiss mountains by the flat which extends from the Rhine
at Eagatz to the same river at Waldshut, so the western highland of
Palestine is broken in twain by the famous "plain of Esdraelon,"
which runs from the Bay of Acre to the Jordan valley at Beth-Shean or
Scythopolis.

East of the Jordan no such depression occurs, the highland there being
continuous. It differs from the western highland chiefly in this--that
its surface, instead of being broken up into a confused mass of rounded
hills, is a table-land, consisting of a long succession of slightly
undulating plains. Except in Trachonitis and southern Ituraea, where the
basaltic rock everywhere crops out, the soil is rich and productive, the
country in places wooded with fine trees, and the herbage luxuriant. On
the west the mountains rise almost precipitously from the Jordan valley,
above which they tower to the height of 3000 or 4000 feet. The outline
is singularly uniform; and the effect is that of a huge wall guarding
Palestine on this side from the wild tribes of the desert. Eastward the
tableland slopes gradually, and melts into the sands of Arabia. Here
water and wood are scarce; but the soil is still good, and bears the
most abundant crops.

Finally, Palestine contains the tract from which it derives its
name, the low country of the Philistines, which the Jews called the
_Shephelah_, together with a continuation of this tract northwards to
the roots of Carmol, the district known to the Jews as "Sharon," or "the
smooth place." From Carmol to the Wady Sheriah, where the Philistine
country ended, is a distance of about one hundred miles, which gives the