suffering from malaria, and for convalescents. A German sanatorium has already been established on Mt. Carmel. Still more important is the fact that in the opinion of the medical experts of the country, and also of prominent German physicians, the country is particularly adapted as a resort for tubercular patients in the first stages of the disease. Since this place is to be reached as easily as the much frequented health resorts on the edge of the Libyan Desert. there opens up an economic prospect of the richest kind, especially as the patients who go to the South belong particularly to the wealthier classes. The advantage of the Egyptian health resorts depends to some extent upon the country’s higher civilization; however, the cultural development of Haifa has commenced with rapid strides. The advantage, however, which Haifa has over the other health resorts is the magic associations produced in countless people by the sound of the name Palestine and the magnificient natural charm of the re gion; indeed, the view from Mt. Carmel over Haifa, the plain, the mountain range as far as the snow-covered Hermon, and on the other side far out over the Sea is one of the most beautiful which is afforded by the sacred land so much frequented by the stranger. Thus much concerning the importance of the future of Haifa.
Ever since the building of the Hedjas railroad has made the inhabitants of Haifa more conscious of its importance, prices of building sites, especially on the slopes of Carmel, have risen. Nevertheless, the prices are still so relatively low that many opportunities are afforded for considerable profits.
Even during the last twenty years, the price of estates have in certain fertile regions (e. g., in the plains of Judea, where plantations have been started) increased ten, and in some cases, fifty-fold. The increase in values on land estates and city lots is destined to go on with much greater rapidity than heretofore, since land, especially in Haifa, has reached to that degree of development from which usually the further development goes on with
more rapid strides. Such was the case in Egypt where the economic revival of the country and the enormous rise in prices of city real estate took place almost unexpectedly.
Accordingly, at the present moment, when Palestine is in a period of economic and cultural transition, the buying up of real estate in Haifa would appear to be particularly promising.
THE MINERAL BATHS OF TIBERIAS
From the Consular and Trade Reports of the past month a very interesting item appears from Consul-General G. B. Ravendal, of Beirut. The Consul says that there are great opportunities for development of mineral baths and the procurement of mineral waters from Syria and Palestine. He comments upon the minerals of Palestine, but refers especially to the small baths at the hot baths of Tiberias, in Galilee. The Holy Land is full of mineral springs, he declares, which have not been made use of commercially, although their curative powers have been known for ages. Syria simply awaits the enterprise to make her baths and mineral waters as famous as Carlsbad.
"Among the mineral resources of Syria," Consul Ravendal says, "I repeatedly have erported on the bitumen deposits of Hasbeya (at the headwaters of the Jordan), of the vicinity of Latakia and of the Dead Sea region. Other mineral treasures have been discovered in Palestine, including extensive fields of phosphate lying to the east and west of the Jordan, and which only require better means of traffic and communication in order to insure their development. The salt deposits of Palestine could be developed into an industry. The Holy Land abounds in mineral springs, as for instance, at Gadara (east of the Sea of Galilee), and at Hamamim Suleimani (east of the Dead Sea). Their temperature ranges between 80° and 140° Fahrenheit. Intensely saline springs exist along the banks of the Dead Sea, all cathartic