On the Fall of Rivers. 307 



eive from the eastern water-slopes of Palestine Proper, 



re is not one perennial stream. 



conclude, from various measurements of the breadth and 

 • ' th of the Dee, that it conveys as great a quantity of water 

 not greater) to the German Ocean, as the Jordan to the 

 'liread Sea. The mean annual breadth of the river Dee at 

 Glenmuick parish is 70 yards, and the mean depth 4 feet ; 

 the portion of the river within this parish is 38 to 53 miles 

 distant from its mouth ; in other parts, further down, the 

 breadth is 80 yards, and the depth 12 feet : thus the average 

 breadth, in its lower course, for a distance of about 50 miles, 

 may be taken at 70 yards, and the depth from 4 to 12 feet ;* 

 and as the average size of the Jordan between the two lakes 

 is only computed at 30 yards broad, and 8 to 9 feet deep, the 

 river Dee may fairly be ranked with the Joi-dan in point of 

 magnitude. 



The entire length of the Dee is 87-5 English miles, and its 

 fall 4060 feet.t The greatest portion of this fall naturally 

 belongs to the upper course, the limit of which and the 

 middle course may be best fixed at a distance of 15-3 miles 

 from the source ; that is, at the Linn of Dee — a spot where 

 the river has cut through opposing rocks a long nar- 

 row passage between 30 and 40 feet deep, and forms four 

 small waterfalls, the central one about 10 or 12 feet, the 

 others not above half that height. Below the fail the water 

 has scooped out a series of basins, in which it rests, deep, 

 dark, and motionless. 



From the Linn of Dee to the sea, a distance of 72-2 miles, 

 it has yet to descend 1190 feet, which makes an average fall 

 of 16o feet per mile. This is about one-fourth more than 

 the average descent of the Jordan ; and yet in the whole 

 course of the Dee below the Linn it does not present a single 

 waterfall or decided rapid. In some places the Dee exhibits 

 even a fall of more than 20 feet per mile, owing to the un- 

 equal distribution of fall, to which all rivers are more or less 



* New Statistical Account of Scotland, vol. xii., pp. 776, 832, 875. 



t Ibid., p. 648. The Uee takes its rise high up on Mount Braeriach, the top 

 of which is 4220 feet high ; the well or fountain whence the river springs is 

 40G0 feet, acoonling to Or Skene Keith. 



