THE SEA OF GALILEE.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume III, Issue 150, 17 March 1876, Page 12

THE SEA OF GALILEE.

The Sea of Galilee, or Sea of Tiberias, or Lake of Gennesareth, is a ! sheet of water formed by the expansion of the bed of the Jordan. It is about twelve and a quarter miles long from north to south, and at its broadest part six and three quarter miles wide from east to west. I But its width is by no means regular^its shape being that of a pear or j a leg of mutton, the broadest part toward the north, and the more j projecting side toward the wast, tho eastern shore being by compari- ! son straight, except near the lower end. It is full of fish. Its waters, thick and muddy at the extrame north, become clear and bright a* they approach its narrow end ; for Jordan, which flows in a foul I stream, leaves the lake a pure and sweet river. Tie surface is from • six hundred to seven hundred feet below the level of the Mediter1 ranean. The climate is genial in winter, and not excessively hot in suna- ' mer. With shores that rise but gently, in most part=, from the basin, 1 and whose color is nnformly brown where seen above the foliage at ' their ba-es, the scenery would be tame were it not for the fine hills, including the snowy tops of Hermon, which can be seen all round 1 through the transparent ether, and for tho innumerable effects of the light and shade. Shrubs and blossoms add to the beauty of the coasts, t which vary continually, being sometimes backed by broad plains, showing at others the opening of long gorges, and elsewhere, especially Ito tho north, being broken into many and charming bays. Volcanic ' action appears to be energetic ; there are hot springs in the basin of the lake, and very serious earthquakes occur. Wild boars are to be found on a plain to the northeast. Those who have formed a mental picture of this sea so often recurring in sacred story — and who in childhood has not ? — have, no doubt, imagined a water covered with ships and boats, resounding with the cries of sailors and fishermen, and flanked by many proud cities rich in merchandise and glorious to the sight. Alas for such visions ! the 1 cities and the men and traffic were there, but they have disappeared so completely that the waters of the lake may be said to sleep amid a 1 solitud«\ As for the famous cities, of most of them it cannot be said 1 with certainty where they were, and this survey now first begins to give us some reliable data for identifying their ruins. One or two re- , main, but not as cities ; small, dirty Arab villages alone represent those ' busy towns wherein were done " mighty works," such as would have overcome the sinful obduracy of Tyre and Sidon. Tiberias is there, on the west coast, rather below the centre of the lake. Its sea walls, broken columns, towers, aqueducts, attest the glory of its ancient estate ; but the modern Tiberias is but a poor collection of houses, chiefly inhabited by Jews who have returned to Palestine. Its filth and vermin have become a proverb. About four miles north of this, , a heap of rums, now named Mejclel, rniu-ks the site of that Magdala where St. Mary Magdalene had her home. North of this, again, is the plain of Gennesareth, an area of great beauty and fertility, along which, sad to say, are several heaps of rubbish, probably the places of old town and villages wherein our Lord taught. — 'Biackwood's Magaziuc'