The Land of Moab

Clergyman and ornithologist H. B. Tristram (1822-1906), an early supporter of Darwin, became both a Fellow of the Royal Society and Canon Residentiary of Durham. His literary career began with an account of his ventures into the desert of Algeria, where he had journeyed seeking a salubrious winter climate. This 1873 volume, one of his many popular works on the Biblical Lands, records his adventures and discoveries east of the Dead Sea. Its engaging narrative recounts the hazards and vexations of travel amongst the local tribes, as well as the sites Tristram visited, many of them biblical (with corresponding quotations from scripture), and many previously unvisited by Europeans. (Tristram's The Fauna and Flora of Palestine was subsequently published by the Palestine Exploration Fund and laid the foundations of systematic biological research in Palestine.) This book thus illuminates the complex interactions between religion, archaeology, and the natural sciences in the period.