the cold se.ison. During a winter visit of Chichester Hart {BEfSl, 1879, 2sii;, the following were seen at Jericho : a few sun birds, ' hojiping tlirush,' shrikes, palm dove, collared turtle, EnL'lish robins, jays, challinches, wheatears, blackbirds, wagtails. The larger birds, such as eagles, vultures, bustards, flamingoes, water birds of various kinds, belong to Palestine or to a larger area, and not particularly to the Jordan Valley.
A review of the botany as well as the zoology of the J ordan ba.sin reveals the interesting fact that in this isolated si)0t, comprising but a few square miles, a series of forms of life are found difTering decidedly from the species of the surrounding region, to whicii they never extend, and bearing a strong affinity to the Ethiopian region, with a trace of Indian admixture.
Culticution. — The plains about Lake H&leh are highly cultivated, and yield heavy crojis of wheat, barlej', Indian com, sesame, and even rice. The plains about L. Tiberias wave with corn, and the plains of Beisan and valley of Jezreel are very pro- ductive, and stand thick with com or indigo. Stunted palms grow wild, but no large ones now exist, except the single large dale pahn at Jericlio. There are many cucumber and vegetable-marrow gardens at the foot of the hills, irrigated by foun- tains. In ihe Zur, barley and siinsim flourish. The olive, Ugs, bananas, oranges, sugar-cane, tobacco, grapes, millet (dhurah), cotton, indigo, melons, cucumbers, and marrows are cultivated at Jericho, and the soil for miles around if supplied with water is yet, as of old, capable of the highest cultivation : all that is wanted is irrigation and weeiling. The harvest in the Jordan Valley is fully a month in advance of that in the highlands.
JoKDAN AS A BouNDAUY. — Stanley remarks (Sin. and Pal. 286) : ' The tropical temperature to whicli its whole plain is thus exposed, whilst calling out into almost unnatural vigour whatever vegeta- tion receives the life-giving touch of its waters, withers up every particle of verdure that is found beyond their reach. As a separation of Israel from the surrounding country, as a boundary between the two main divisions of the tribes, as an image of water in a dry iind thirsty soil, it played an important part ; but not as the scene of great events or the seat of great cities. Its contact with tlie history of the people is exceptional, not ordinary, confined to rare and remote occasions, the more remarkable from their very rarity.' This is the general view taken at the present day, with Palestine under a feeble government and an ener- vated race inhabiting the Jordan Valley. The valley was, however, once ' well watered everywhere as the garden of the LORD, and like the land of Egypt,' and this may very well occur again under a stable government and a more energetic race of people. The levels about Jericho and Kafrein are alKjut 200 ft. below that of Lake Tiberias, so that the whole of the Jordan Valley might be iirigated bj' the Jordan waters if the matter were taken in hand as a Syrion national enterprise.
The terms ' this side Jordan,' or ' the other side Jordan,' are of constont occurrence in the early history, denoting that the Jordan was re- garded as a physical feature of demarcation or boundary. The original boundary of the Promised Land was to reach 'unto the side of the sea of C'hinnereth ca-stward. And the boundary shall go down to Jordan, and the extremity sliall lie at the Salt Sea' (Nu 34"). Hut the tribes of ICeiiben and Gad and half Miinasseh saw that the eivstern side of the Jordan, as now, wius giKxi for cattle, and they acquired tlieir inheritance there (Nu 32"), outside the Promised Land, on condition of going armed over Jonlan and fully a.ssisting tli« people of Israel to conquer the loud. On the com
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JOKDAX
pletion of this work they were permitted to return to the eastern side with a blessing, after buUdiug an altar by Jordan, ' a great alUir to see,' that might be a witness between them that they were one people, and that the tribes living west of Jordan sliould not in the future say to those on the east, ' What have ye to do with the Lord God of Israel ? for the Lord hath made Jordan a boundary between us and you, ye children of Reuben and chUdren of Gad ' (Jos 2-2'»'-). See Ed.
The Citiics of the Flain.— The earliest account of the Jordan Valley describes it as very dillerent in appearance from its aspect at the present time. From the high ground near Bethel, ' Lot lifted up his eyes, and beheld all the plain {ciccdr) of Jordan, that it was wJl watered everywhere, before the Lord destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah, even as the garden of the Lord, like the land of Egypt, as thou comest into Zoar. So Lot chose him all the Plain of Jordan ; and Lot journeyed east' (Gn 13""). This would indicate a position for the cities of the Plain at the northern end of the Salt Sea, as proposed by Sir George Grove. The Arab geographers, how- ever, place these cities at the southern end of the Salt Sea ; and recently M. Clermont-Ganneau (PEFSt, 1886) has taken the same view, giving identifications for the several cities (see Sodom). On the other hand, Strabo (Judcea) in relating that Juda;a is full of fire, places these cities on the western side of tlie Salt Sea within a radius of 60 stadia, close to Masada, and refers to the rocks there bearing the marks of lire, with a soil like ashes, pitch falling in drops from the rocks, rivers boiling up and emitting a fetid odour to a great distance ; dwellings in every direction overthrown, — a de- scription very suitable to this spot at the present day, where there are hot sulphur springs and every appearance of volcanic energj' near at hand. Strabo describes the overthrow of the cities as due to shocks of earthquake, eruptions of flames, and hot springs, containm^' asplialtus and sulphur, causing the lake to break its bounds and the rocks to take fire. Josephus states that the country of Sodom bordered upon the Lake Asphaltitis (Salt Sea), and that the cities were burnt by lightning, in conse- qience of which there are stOl the remainders of teat divine fire, and that the traces of the five cities are still to be seen (BJ rv. \'iii. 4 ; v. xiii. 6 ; Tac. Hist. v. 6 ; Diod. ii. 48, xix. 98 ; Curt. v. 16). He ■would appear (BJ IV. viu. 2) to place Sodom at the western side of the Arabah, near ' the utmost limits of the Asphaltitis southward,' and to place Somorrhon (Gomorrah?) on the eastern side, on the bounds of Petra in Arabia. Sir \V. Dawson (Egypt and Syria) supposes that the overthrow of these cities may have been due to underground reservoirs of inflammable gases, and petroleum escap- ing through a fissure along an old line of ' fault,' causing bitumen and sulphur to rain upon the cities. There is no indication that the overthrow of these cities was accompanied by any earthquake or displacement of the level of the Salt Sea (Gn I4S. 8. 11,)^ though the peissage ' in the vale of Siddim, ■which is the Salt Sea,' would appear ambiguous. The reference to the whole land which ' is brimstone, and salt, and burning, that it is not sown, nor burneth, nor any grass groweth therein, like the overthrow of Sodom' (Dt 29^), etc., would appear to apply more to the southern end of the Salt Sea than the generally accepted site on the northern end. Assuming, however, that there was no dis- turbance affecting the level of the Salt Sea, it may be questioned whether the physical efl'ect of the sub- stitution of arid plains in lieu of the well-watered district which existed previously may not have seriously afi'ected the fertility of the Jordan Valley. It is known that the level of the Salt Sea varies yearly many feet, according to the rainfall in the