Page 165 - Bible History

F llily d vegeta­ tion
138 GOD'S CHOSEN PEOPLE ENTER THE PROMISED LAND
THE JORDAN RIVER
The region east of the Jordan was better suited than that to the west for the raising of ocks and herds.
Along the coast of the Mediterranean runs an un­ broken plain from Gaza to Mount Carmel. This plain is about eighty miles long. In the south it is twenty miles wide, but grows narrower to the north. It is very fertile country, though in some places the streams which run through it create marshes.
Between this plain and the Jordan River is a plateau about twenty- ve miles wide. Like the plateau on the east of the Jordan, it is more fertile in the north than in the south, where it is bleak and almost barren. However, olives grow here in abundance, and the pine and the laurel are to be found. There is a wilderness just west of the Jordan. Going north, the land becomes more fertile. Here, oranges are