2o8 ECHOES OF OLD COUNTY LIFE. 



to cut a channel about sixty yards wide, for about 

 twenty miles from the top of the Gulf of Akabah, and 

 let in the waters of the Red Sea ; and, as the whole 

 country from thence to the Dead Sea is a loose sandy 

 gravel, it would wash out its own course to the inland 

 sea and rapidly submerge it. The river Jordan rises 

 many miles to the north of this sea, and flows into it, 

 and the waters would fill the valley on each side of the 

 river, and continue to do so up to the Sea of Tiberias. 

 At the Mediterranean end from the Gulf of Acre, it 

 would pass down the valley of Esdraelon, submerging 

 the brook Kedron, and through a cutting of twenty-seven 

 miles from near Mount Carmel, would join the valley 

 of the Jordan about thirty miles south of the Lake of 

 Tiberias. Here the waters of the Mediterranean would 

 rapidly assist in filling up the valley, and meet the 

 waters of the Red Sea. 



Mr. Henley computed that it would take three years 

 for the two seas to fill the enormous natural depression, 

 and that upwards of 736,272,000,000 of cubic yards of 

 water would be required for the purpose. Jerusalem 

 is now 2000 feet above the Jordan, but if the 

 Palestine Canal were completed, it would only be 

 700 feet above it, and less than ten miles from the 

 canal, and would probably become an important port. 

 The plain on which Damascus stands is one of the most 

 fertile in the world. The city itself contains a popu- 

 lation of 110,000 souls, and a continuous stream of 

 pilgrims pass from the city and its neighbourhood to 

 Mecca. With the development of the productive soil, it 

 Avas computed that an enormous amount of traffic would 



