The country known by the names of Canaan, Palestine, the Holy Land and the Promised Land is located in Asia, at the eastern end of the Mediterranean Sea, and not far from Africa. It is not far from Europe, and consequently very near the center of that part of the earth which was known to the ancients. It has an extent of less than six thousand square miles, being about one twenty-second part of the size of the kingdom of Norway. It has now about three hundred and fifty thousand inhabitants, but had formerly a great many more. When King David numbered the people, he found one million three hundred thousand who could bear arms. One-fourth of a population is generally considered able to bear arms, and the number of inhabitants at that time must have exceeded five millions. The country is very mountainous. To the north, in Syria, is Mount Lebanon, ten thousand feet at its highest, and east of this is Mount Hermon. Lebanon was famed for its magnificent cedars. From Lebanon and Hermon two mountain ranges extend southward through the whole length of the country, one to the west, the other to the east of the river Jordan. Jerusalem lies two thousand five hundred feet above the ocean. The river Jordan runs two hundred miles from north to south, and divides the country into two parts. It flows through the Lake of Gennesaret, which has been and is yet very rich in fish, and empties into the Dead Sea, which is forty-five miles long and ten miles wide. The Dead Sea lies thirteen hundred feet lower than the Mediterranean Sea. The water has a bitter taste and is very salty. Neither animal nor vegetable life can exist in it. If a fish happens to stray from the Jordan into the lake, it dies. Such is now the condition of that plain which once upon a time was as the garden of Eden. Palestine lies far south; its summers are therefore hot, and the winters mild. In Jerusalem, which lies at such great altitude, snow may occasionally fall in January and February, but melts immediately.--The land used to be very fruitful, producing grain, wine, many kinds of fruit, and had good pastures. In the Bible it is called “a land flowing with milk and honey.” Now it is entirely different. The country has through many centuries been badly governed, and the saying appears to be true that where the Turk sets his foot, grass will grow no more.--Of forests may be mentioned the Woods of Ephraim, where Joab slew Absalom. The cedar wood, with which Solomon ceiled the temple, came from Lebanon.--The camel was a beast of burden, and used mostly in traveling.--Of wild animals there were lions and bears, as we read in the stories of Samson and David.