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| Title | Page 17 |
| Creator | Holland, Frederick Whitmore, 1837-1880.
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| Description | Sinai and Jerusalem; or, Scenes from Bible Lands: Illustrated by Twelve Colored Photographic Views, Including a Panorama of Jerusalem, With Descriptive Letterpress. |
| Caption | THE DESERT OF SINAI. time a foaming torrent, from eight to ten feet deep, was tearing down the valley, which was nearly 300 yards in breadth. A beautiful tamarisk wood, two miles long, was completely swept away; and hundreds of palm- trees, from the gardens of Wady Eeiran, were borne down to the sea, besides scores of sheep and goats, camels and donkeys, and even men, women, and children; for an Arab encampment, pitched a few miles above me, was overwhelmed by the flood. At half-past nine the waters were rapidly subsiding, and in the morning a quietly-flowing stream, a few inches deep, was all that remained. But the whole bed of the Wady had been changed, and a scene of devastation presented itself, such as I shall never forget. The violence of these floods results in great measure from the absence of vegetation and trees, to retard and check the streams which flow down from the mountains. When, formerly, the country was inhabited by a large population of monks and hermits, who cultivated every available spot, placing walls across the valleys, planting fruit-trees, and building reservoirs in which to store the water, it was impossible for a flood to gather force, and sweep everything before it, as it docs at the present day. It is also a well-known fact that the presence of trees produces rain; and so, doubtless, at that time the rainfall was larger, and more constant; and, consequently, the amount of vegetation far more abundant. This was, perhaps, still more the case at the time of the Exodus; for the Amalekites, the then inhabitants of the country, appear to have been to some extent an agricultural, as well as a pastoral people. There are also many other reasons for supposing that the Peninsula was in olden times far better wooded than it is now; and, with the destruction of the woods, it is easy to see that both the supply of water and the amount of pasturage must have decreased in proportion. Even now there is both more water and more vegetation than has usually been described, especially in the neighbourhood of Mount Sinai. The trees that are most common are the date-palm (of which a group is represented in the picture), the tamarisk, and the acacia. The wild palm-tree of the desert grows in groups, and generally marks the presence of water. When cultivated, and stripped of the dead leaves which hang from its trunk in its wild state, it is very fruitful; and the dates from |
| Date | 1870 |
| Publisher | London: Printed by Jas. Truscott and Son, Suffolk Lane, City. |
| Subject.Topical (LCSH) | Palestine -- Description and travel.
Sinai Peninsula -- Description and travel.
Jerusalem -- Description and travel.
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| Subject (Geographic) | Palestine
Sinai Peninsula
Jerusalem
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| Original Item Location | http://library.uh.edu/record=b3601783~S11 |
| Repository | Special Collections, University of Houston Libraries |
| Use and Reproduction | This image is in the public domain and may be used freely. If publishing in print, electronically, or on a website, please use the citation button above. To request higher resolution images, please use the Request High Res button above. |
| File name | meast_201009_044.jpg |
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