330 
It is sometimes coarse and pebbly, containing shells now 
living in the neighbouring seas; the cementing material of the 
stone being carbonate of lime. It is sufficiently hard for 
building purposes. In some places on the road to Ramleh it is 
seen to pass into a conglomerate or pebbly rock, composed of 
rounded fragments from the hills. On the authority of Dr 
Paulus, of Jerusalem, he gives a boring made near Jaffa, which 
passed through 174 feet of the sandstone, with clay containing 
marine shells especially a species of cardium, below. The 
maritime plains which are undulating may be taken at 25 
miles wide near the frontier of Egypt, constituting the plain of 
Philistia, towards Jaffa, near which diminishing to 12 to 15 
miles wide thence they constitute the Plain of Sharon and run 
to a point at Carmel. 
The Plain of Esdraelon which lies between the range of 
Carmel and the hills of Lower Galilee is included by Hudleston 
among the maritime plains. It has been the great battlefield 
of Palestine, where warriors of almost every nation of the old 
world under Heaven have pitched their tents from the days of 
Barak to Napoleon,* and which may again become the scene of 
great military events, as being the lowest valley of approach 
from the Mediterranean to the Jordan Valley, with a good 
harbour at its north end. Its average height is 250 feet above 
the former (sea) with a summit about 35 feet higher near Jezreel, 
where the watersheds of the Jalud and Kishon are parted. Its 
summit is lower by 375 feet than that in the Valley of Arabah, 
so that were it practicable to bring the waters of the Mediterr- 
anean into the Jordan Valley there would be an intervening 
anticlinal with a base of 115 miles and summit of 375 feet to 
get over before reaching the Red Sea—which of itself sufficiently 
shows the impracticability of the once talked of Jordan 
Valley Canal scheme. This plain, as that of Sharon, is rich 
and fertile, I was much struck by the great depth of soil 
*On 10th May, 1799, Napoleon, who had taken Jaffa on the 6th March, 
having marched along the coast, assaulted St. Jean d’Acre (Accra). The British 
Ships lying in the roads of Carmel. He was defeated by Sir Sidney Smith, and 
the siege raised on 20th May. 
