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