Lake of Tiberias 650 ft. depression.
Dead Sea 1312
There may be some error in the elevations of the foim- tains as here given. Lake Huleh is encompassed by a great plain, extending to Dan ; and as it appears to the eye almost level, it is difficult to believe that there could be a difference of 500 feet in the elevations of the foun- tain and the lake. Porter estimated it on the spot at not above 100 feet; but it is worthy of note that Yon Wildenbruch makes it bj"^ measurement 537 feet, and De Bertou 344.
The general course of the Jordan is due south. From their fountains the three streams flow south to the points of junction, and continue in the same direction to the Huleh; and from the southern extremity of this lake the Jordan again issues and resumes its old course. For some two miles its banks are flat, and its current not very rapid ; but on passing through Jisr Beniit Ya- kiib (" the Bridge of Jacob's Daughters"), the banks sud- denly contract and rise high on each side, and the river dashes in sheets of foam over a rocky bed, rebounding from cliff to cliff in its mad career. Here and there the retreating banks have a little green meadow, with its fringe of oleanders all wet and glistening with spray. Thus it rushes on, often winding, occasionally doubling back like the coils of a serpent, till, breaking from rocky barriers, it enters the rich plain of Batihah, where on
JORDAN
1006
JORDAN
tlie left bank staiul the ruins of Bethsaida (q. v.). The stream now expands, and glides lazily along till it falls on the still bosom of the Sea of Galilee. Between Beth- saida and the sea the Jordan averages about twenty vards in width, and Hows sluggishly between low allu- vial banks. Bars of sand extend across its channel here and there, at which it is easily forded (Porter, Hand- 6oo/-, p.426; Robinson, ii, 414 sq.; Burckhardt, (S'.y?-ia, p. 315). From Jisr Benat Yakiib the distance is only seven miles, and yet in that distance the river falls 700 feet. Tlie total length of the section between the two lakes is about eleven miles as the crow flies.
An old tradition tells us that the Jordan flows direct through the Sea of Galilee without mingling with its waters. The origin of the story may be the fact that the river enters the lake at the northern extremity, and leaves it at a point exactly opposite at the southern, without apparent increase or diminution.
Tlie third section of the river, lying between the Sea of Galilee and the Dead Sea, is the Jordan of Scripture, the other two sections not being directly mentioned either in the O. T. or N. T. Until the last few years little was known of it. The notices of ancient geogra- phers are not full. Travellers had crossed it at several ])oints, but all the portions between these points were unknown. ^Vhen the remarkable depression of the Dead Sea was ascertained by trigonometrical measure- ment, and when it was shown that the Jordan must have a fall of 1400 feet in its short course of about 100 miles, the measurements were called in question by that distinguished geographer Dr. Robinson, in a paper read before the Royal Geographical Society in 1847 (Joui-nal, vol. xviii, part ii). In that same year lieutenant Moly- neux, K.N., conveyed a boat from the Sea of Galilee to the Dead Sea, mostly in the river, but in places on the backs of camels, where rocks and rapids prevented nav- igation. Owing to the hostility of the Arabs the ex- pedition was not successful, and the Jordan was not yet explored. Lieutenant Lynch, of the United States Navy, headed a much more successful expedition in 1«4«, and was the first fidly to describe the course, and fully to solve the iii>-st(ries of the Jordan. His Official Heport is the vi.indar.i work on the river. Motyneux's paper in the .Innnml iij'liie Royal Geor/. Society also con- tains some useful matter (vol. xviii, part ii).
The valley througli which this section of the Jordan flows is a long, low plain, running from north to south, and sliut in by steep and rugged parallel ridges, the eastern ridge rising fully 5000 feet above the river's bed, and the western about 3000. This plain is the yreat plain of the later Jews; the (/reat desert (7ro\\})v iprjftKtf) of Josephus; the Anion or "channel" of the Greek geographers; the "region of Jordan" oftheN.T. (Matt. iii. 5; Luke iii, 3) ; and the Ghor or "sunken plain" of the modern Arabs (Stanley, p. 277; Josephus, IVar, iii, 9, 7 ; iv, «, 2; Reland, Pakest. p. 805, BGl, 377 sq. ). It is about six miles wide at its northern end, but It gradually expands until it attains a width of upwards of twelve at Jericho. Its sides are not straight lines, nor is its surface perfectly level. The mountains on each side here and there send out rocky spurs, and long, low roots far into it. Winter torrents, descending from Willi ravnies, cut deeply through its soft strata. As a whole It is now a desert. In its northern division, above the fords of Succoth, small portions are cultivated around lountanis, and along the banks of streamlets, where irri- gation is easy ; but all the rest is a wilderness— in spring- covered with rank grass and thistles, but in summer parched and bare. The southern section— known as the "plain of Jericho"— is different in aspect. Its sur- face 18 covered with a white nitrous crust, like hoar- frost, through which not a blade of grass or green herb springs. Nothing could be imagined more dreary or desolate than this part of the plain.