The best modern map of the Holy Land, previous to that prepared by the Palestine Exploration Fund, was the work of Van de Velde, a careful and scientific traveller and scholar. Van de Velde not only took observations himself, but laid down on his map all the observations made by previous travellers. Yet, when at the annual meeting of the Palestine Exploration Fund in 1886, a portion of Van de Velde’s map was shown on an enlarged scale, side by side with the same portion of the Society’s map, similarly enlarged, the contrast was striking. The first, with its hills roughly sketched in, its valleys laid down roughly, and its inhabited places, villages, or ruins, gave all that was known of this piece of country before the Survey. It was on such a map as this, the best at the time, because the most faithful, that the geographical student had to work. There was little use, from a geographical point of view, in consulting previous books of travel, because Van de Velde had gleaned from them all their geographical facts. Yet hardly any single place was laid down correctly; none of the hill shading was accurate; the course of the rivers and valleys was not to be depended upon; the depression of the Lake of Galilee was variously stated; distances were estimated by the rough reckoning of time taken from place to place; and the number of names was only about eighteen hundred, whereas the large map of the Palestine Exploration Society contains ten thousand.[16] [Illustration: PHYSICAL MAP of PALESTINE] [_Authorities and Sources_:--“Tent Work in Palestine.” Major Conder, R. E. “Twenty-one Years’ Work in the Holy Land.” P. E. Fund. “Quarterly Statements of the P. E. Fund.”] 8. _Israel’s Wars and Worship, considered in connection with the Physical Features of the Country._ _The Wars._ Now that we possess a detailed and accurate map of the Holy Land we are in a position to study with advantage the conquest of the country by Joshua, and to appreciate the motives of strategy and policy displayed in the successive phases of Israel’s wars and worship. The twelve tribes, coming out of the wilderness, encamped in the Plain of the Jordan, opposite Jericho. While they rested there, Balak, king of Moab, alarmed by their numbers, and uncertain as to their intentions, sent to Mesopotamia for Balaam, to come and curse them. Balaam ascended Mount Peor (sacred to Baal Peor, _i.e._, Baal the Opener) and was constrained to bless them, and speak of them as “a people that dwell alone--not reckoned among the nations” (Num. xxiii. 9).