fertile tract between the mountain summits and the sea, if they took no
note of its marvellous and almost unequalled beauty, must at any
rate have seen that here was one of earth's most productive
gardens--emphatically a "good land," that might well content whosoever
should be so fortunate as to possess it. There is nothing equal to it in
Western Asia. The Damascene oasis, the lower valley of the Orontes, the
Ghor or Jordan plain, the woods of Bashan, and the downs of Moab are
fertile and attractive regions; but they are comparatively narrow
tracts and present little variety; each is fitted mainly for one kind of
growth, one class of products. Phoenicia, in its long extent from Mount
Casius to Joppa, and in its combination of low alluvial plain, rich
valley, sunny slopes and hills, virgin forests, and high mountain
pasturage, has soils and situations suited for productions of all manner
of kinds, and for every growth, from that of the lowliest herb to
that of the most gigantic tree. In the next section an account of its
probable products in ancient times will be given; for the present it is
enough to note that Western Asia contained no region more favoured or
more fitted by its general position, its formation, and the character of
its soil, to become the home of an important nation.



CHAPTER II--CLIMATE AND PRODUCTIONS

Climate of Phoenicia--Varieties--Climate of the coast, in
the south, in the north--Climate of the more elevated
regions--Vegetable productions--Principal trees--Most
remarkable shrubs and fruit-trees--Herbs, flowers, and
garden vegetables--Zoology--Land animals--Birds--Marine and
fresh-water fish--Principal shell-fish--Minerals.