Tiberias and the Dead Sea in parts too low at that season to float his very small boat.

Mr. Conder in the Modern Traveller, Palestine,' 235, says, citing Joshua iii. 15, 1 Chron. xii. 15, Jer. xii. 5: "There is no doubt that anciently at certain seasons (in particular in the first month of the Hebrew year, March) the river overflowed its inner bank. But at present, says Maundrell, whether it be because the river has, by its rapidity of current, worn its channel deeper than it was formerly, or whether because its waters are diverted some other way, it seems to have forgotten its ancient greatness; for we could discern no sign or probability of such overflowings, when we were there, which was the 30th of March, being the proper time for these inundations. Nay, so far was the river from overflowing, that it ran at least two yards below the brink of its channel." Pococke was there at the same time of the year, the last week in March; Haselquist about a fortnight later; Chateaubriand in October-this accounts for his different account of the current of the Jordan, which he represents as sluggish, reluctantly creeping to the Dead Sea. Pococke describes it, on the contrary, as deep and very rapid, wider than the Tiber at Rome and perhaps about as wide as the Thames at Windsor; the water turbid. The Kishon flows from its fountains in the western watershed of the range which separates it from the Jordan, about 40 miles north-westward, into the Mediterranean, through the plain of Esdraelon, gathering the streams from the southern hills of Galilee and the northern and northeastern slopes of Mount Ephraim in its course. In the Phoenician plain of Akka, which it enters through a break in the highland, it receives supplies from the northern and north-eastern slopes of Carmel. In the hot seasons its bed through Hebrew land (Esdraelon) is almost dry. As it approaches its outfall the springs of Carmel maintain it as a scanty perennial stream.

The surplus rainfall of the western watershed of Mount Ephraim, in the wet season, finds its way by many little valleys and ravines into a few small rivulets across the Hebrew portion of the maritime plain, between Carmel and Joppa, into the sea; but in the hot season their beds are generally dry.

In the Philistine portion of the maritime plain there are a few somewhat larger rivers or rather rivulets, which retain small supplies of water in comparatively dry seasons. These are chiefly supplied by the rainfall on the western watershed of the mountains of Judah, but in the Hebrew country the streams which supply

them are mere wadys, torrents in the wet season, but waterless channels in the dry. The El Arish is mainly supplied from the streams southward of Palestine.

Some of the spurs of Anti-Libanus and the westernmost watershed of Gaulonitis and the hills of Galilee, except in the hot season, maintain through Lake Huleh and the course of the Upper Jordan, and on the western side of the Sea of Galilee, a scanty supply for the Lower Jordan. But these are mere brooks, some of which in the hot season are dry. The supplies from the western side of that river are very scanty from the narrow range of the watershed, and the rapidity with which its rainfall is discharged into the river and carried away. Nor is the supply from the east considerable. The Hieromax and the Jabbok are almost the only streams which deserve the name of rivulets, and in the hot season they are almost dry. The Jabbok is only five or six miles in length.

The celebrated brook Kidron, which flows from Jerusalem towards the Dead Sea, is dry except in the season of rains.

Lakes.-There is not any piece of water in the Hebrew land which deserves the name of lake. Of course in so varied a country there are in the wet season, at least, many pools.

On the eastern frontier the Jordan forms three lakes. The northernmost is Huleh or Merom, in the Upper Jordan. It has a bed four or five miles in average breadth, and seven or eight in length. The country around it is generally flat, marshy, and covered with water plants. Over this in the rainy season the waters spread to a much greater extent.

About nine or ten miles below Huleh, the Jordan spreads out and forms the Lake of Galilee. This piece of water is of an irregular form, but of an average breadth of about six miles and of an extreme length of about 13 miles.

The southern lake, which swallows the Jordan, is the Dead, the Salt, or the Eastern Sea. This lake is of an irregular but average breadth of about 9 miles, and in length about 45 or 46 English miles. Towards the south it is almost intersected by a promontory.

The depths of the Dead Sea necessarily vary according to the quantity of water spread over its surface by the Jordan and its other tributaries, and the length of time during which it has been exposed to evaporation.

Its bed is, in the dry season, shallow, averging a depth of about 13 feet, but this is intersected, almost throughout its entire length,

by a wide ravine of the depth, from the surface, of 1,300 to 1,400 feet.

The evaporation produces a thin transparent vapour, which gives the sea a sombre aspect, and deposits an offensive slimy substance, which irritates the skin and corrodes iron.

The shores of this lake are covered with a deposit of salt, which gives them the appearance of having been whitewashed, and causes the stems and branches of the sparse, almost leafless bushes to sparkle as branches covered with sleet in the sunshine.

The region is unhealthy; the water greatly exceeds the weight of that of the ocean. The fish, which abound in some of the inflowing streams, perish when carried into it.

The bitumen produced in great quantities in the lower limb of this lake has at times been the subject of commerce and contention. Lynch says: "At one time to-day the sea assumed an aspect peculiarly sombre. Unstirred by the wind, it lay smooth and unruffled as an inland lake. The great evaporation inclosed it in a thin transparent vapour, its purple tinge contrasting strongly with the extraordinary colour of the sea beneath, and, where they blended in the distance, giving it the appearance of smoke from burning sulphur. It seemed a vast caldron of metal, fused but motionless.

"The surface of the sea (at night) was one wide sheet of phosphorescent foam; and the waves, as they broke upon the shore, threw a sepulchral light upon the dead bushes and scattered fragments of rock."

Plains. The principal plains are those of Gennesareth, Esdraelon (Jezreel), Sharon, and Jericho.

The plain of Gennesareth lies on the western side of the lake and constitutes a portion of Galilee. It is a considerable depression, having the high hills of Galilee on the west and the lofty rocky barrier of Gaulonitis frowning upon it from the eastern side of the lake. The hills to the north-west are lower and more broken.

The plain is of great fertility, and generally well supplied with water from the western springs.

It is co-extensive with the lake in length, but of no great breadth, but between the hills it expands into several small plains.

The plain of Esdraelon is also to a considerable extent in Galilee, constituting the greater portion of Lower Galilee. It is traversed throughout by the Kishon, and is well watered by that river and its influent springs. It is cut off from the small plain of Acre (Akka) by the foot of Carmel on the left, and the cliffs on the

right bank between which the river flows. The plain extends from the pass over the dividing range from Jordan to this interruption, and, with its outspreadings among the hills of Galilee and Mount Ephraim, contains an area of about 200 square miles.

This plain is highly fertile in corn and pasture, and constituted one of the granaries for the Phoenician ports.

The plain of Sharon was separated from that of Esdraelon by the foot of Carmel; but the communication between the two was easy. The Sharon constituted the northern portion of the great maritime plain, and extended from Carmel to the Philistine border near Joppa. It was intersected by spurs from the mountains of Samaria, bills of no great elevation, and constituted a part of that realm. It was one of the most fertile districts of Hebrew land.

The Plain of Jericho.-"On approaching the Dead Sea" (Kitto, S. L. 118), "the mountains on either hand recede, or rather the cleft which forms the valley of the Jordan widens, having a broad plain traversed by the river-the portion on the west being called 'the plain of Jericho,' and that on the east the 'plain of Moab.' The plain generally is bare of vegetation; but about a mile from the river (on the western bank), a meagre sprinkling of shrubs begins to appear, giving the plain here much the appearance of the more verdant parts of the Arabian Desert. Half a mile further we descend to a lower stage of the plain, into what may be properly regarded as the outermost channel of the river. This is separated from the higher level by a bank of marl from 30 to 40 feet in height, generally precipitous, but cut through in many places by channels formed perhaps by the passage of the water that falls in the rainy season upon the upper plain. The plain along the base of this high bank is covered with mud, but clay predominates towards the river; in approaching which, one is soon involved in a jungle of luxuriant shrubs and low tangled bushes. The immediate banks of the river are covered with a low, luxuriant forest of willows, oleanders, tamarisk, and cane. The highest of the trees do not attain an elevation of more than 30 or 40 feet, and few of them are more than 5 or 6 inches in diameter. It is this part of the channel, this lower terrace, covered towards, the stream with jungle, which is covered with water when the river is in flood. Hence the Scripture alludes to the wild beasts driven from their retreats in the thickets by the swellings' of the Jordan. (Jer. xlix. 19.) The inundation does not now, nor is there any probability that it ever did, extend beyond the wooded verge of the lower terrace."

Portions of this plain were fertile in ancient times, and its produce was characteristic of almost a tropical climate. It lies upwards of 1,300 feet below the level of the Mediterranean.

Valleys.-There are necessarily many small valleys in the mountain land of Palestine; but none of them of any note except the beautiful valley of Samaria or Shechem, extending to the maritime plain westward, and turning over the pass down to the plain of Jericho on the east; and the curious little valley of Engedi in the midst of the western wilderness of the Dead Sea. The latter will be described with the region in which it is contained.

The Valley of Shechem.-The "position of Nablous (Napolose) identifies the sites, beyond all question, with the Shechem of the Old Testament and the Sychar (or Sichem) of the New: the ancient capital of Samaria. . . Few places exceed it in the romantic beauty of its situation. It is situated in the narrow valley between Mount Ebal and Mount Gerizim, having the former on the north, and the latter on the south. At the present time it is populous and flourishing, and the environs bear the marks of opulence and industry, being adorned with small gardens that skirt the banks of the stream by which the valley is watered." "We passed," says Dr. Richardson, "its scarcely moistened bed, and a little above the town saw an ancient bridge with twelve arches, which were still capable of maintaining the communication between the two sides of the valley." Dr. Clarke, in approaching it from Jennin, was struck with its flourishing appearance. "There is nothing in the Holy Land finer," he affirms, " than the view of Napolose from the heights around it. As the traveller descends towards it from the hills, it appears luxuriantly embosomed in the most delightful and fragrant bowers, half concealed by rich gardens, and by stately trees collected into groves all round the bold and beautiful valley in which it stands." (Modern Traveller, Palestine,' 246-248.)

"Along the valley," says Dr. Clarke, "we beheld a company of Ishmaelites coming from Gilead, as in the days of Reuben and Judah, with their camels bearing spicery, and balm, and myrrh. . . Upon the hills around, flocks and herds were feeding as of old; nor in the simple garb of the shepherds of Samaria was there anything to contradict the notions we may entertain of the appearance formerly exhibited by the sons of Jacob. The morning after our arrival we met caravans coming from Grand Cairo, and noticed others reposing in the large olive plantations near the gates."

Leaving Nablous, the road lies along the narrow vale, and in