[Footnote 1: _B.J._, III. x. 8.] [Footnote 2: _B.J._, III. x. 7; Jac. de Vitri, in the _Gesta Dei per Francos_, i. 1075.] The heat on the shore is now very oppressive. The lake lies in a hollow six hundred and fifty feet below the level of the Mediterranean,[1] and thus participates in the torrid conditions of the Dead Sea.[2] An abundant vegetation formerly tempered these excessive heats; it would be difficult to understand that a furnace, such as the whole basin of the lake now is, commencing from the month of May, had ever been the scene of great activity. Josephus, moreover, considered the country very temperate.[3] No doubt there has been here, as in the _campagna_ of Rome, a change of climate introduced by historical causes. It is Islamism, and especially the Mussulman reaction against the Crusades, which has withered as with a blast of death the district preferred by Jesus. The beautiful country of Gennesareth never suspected that beneath the brow of this peaceful wayfarer its highest destinies lay hidden. [Footnote 1: This is the estimate of Captain Lynch (in Ritter, _Erdkunde_ xv., 1st part, p. 20.) It nearly agrees with that of M. de Bertou (_Bulletin de la Soc. de Geogr._, 2d series, xii., p. 146.)] [Footnote 2: The depression of the Dead Sea is twice as much.] [Footnote 3: _B.J._, III. x. 7 and 8.] Dangerous countryman! Jesus has been fatal to the country which had the formidable honor of bearing him. Having become a universal object of love or of hate, coveted by two rival fanaticisms, Galilee, as the price of its glory, has been changed to a desert. But who would say that Jesus would have been happier, if he had lived obscure in his village to the full age of man? And who would think of these ungrateful Nazarenes, if one of them had not, at the risk of compromising the future of their town, recognized his Father, and proclaimed himself the Son of God?