576 Prof. T. O. Bonney — The Kishon and Jordan Valleys. 



ill-marked, and He farther west than the natural position. The gap 

 between Diihy and Tabor is the narrower, and, so far as I can 

 ascertain, a few feet tlie higher ; that between the former and 

 Gilboa is between two and three miles wide and about 270 feet 

 above sea-level. One position in the ' strait ' leading to the plain 

 of Acre, according to the Palestine survey map, is 80 feet above 

 sea-level, so the average down-slope of the plain of Esdraelon must 

 be about four yards in a mile. A plain it is not, however, in such 

 a strict sense of the word as the Cambridgeshire fenland ; for the 

 bases of the hills of Galilee on one side and of Samaria on the 

 other shelve gently down with occasional slight undulations so 

 as to fuse imperceptibly with the actually level ground near the 

 river brink. All this low land is covered with a thick, rich brown 

 earth, a broad fertile expanse of arable land and herbage, in striking 

 contrast with the comparatively bare limestone masses on either side. 



Obviously this is a river valley — a trench not less than a thousand 

 feet deep cut through the limestone highlands of Palestine — but it is 

 on much too large a scale to have been excavated by the present 

 Kishon system. The difficulties increase when we examine the 

 Jordan valley. That is another trough, seldom less and often more 

 than four miles wide. Its bed, where reached by the southern of 

 the two passes, must be at least 700 feet below sea-level,^ so the 

 drop from the watershed must be quite 950 feet. The Jordan has 

 carved its present course through old lacustrine deposits, of which 

 we need now only say that they were formed when an unbroken 

 sheet of water extended from the divide between the Eed and the 

 Dead Seas to the northern end of Lake Huleh.- They extend into 

 a recess between the roots of Little Hermon and Gilboa, where, 

 about 350 feet above the river, is Beisan, the ancient Bethshean. 



The depth of the Sea of Galilee is about 165 feet, and it may 

 occupy a true rock basin, for the river, no great distance below its 

 outlet, rnns, according to Lynch,^ over a rocky bed. The surface of 

 the Dead Sea is about 1,292 feet below the Mediterranean, its 

 greatest depth being 1,278 feet, and the watershed between it and 

 the Red Sea, on which are outcrops of limestone, is 660 feet above 

 the latter. As so much has been written on the Jordan valley,* it 



1 The Sea of Galilee is 682-5 feet below sea-level. 



^ The water in this ancient lake seems to have risen to about 1,398 feet above its 

 present level, or some 98 feet above the sea ; that would be, in round numbers, 90 feet 

 •above the present surface of Huleh. 



^ "Expedition to the Dead Sea and the Jordan," chs. viii and ix. 



* The literature connected with this subject is extensive, but I may say that, until 

 I formed the conclusion expressed in this paper, I consulted books to ascertain facts 

 rather than opinions. I made great use of Professor Hull's JMemoir in the " Survey 

 of Western Palestine ' ' (though venturing to differ in one or two matters from him) . 

 Valuable references to literature are to be found in Professor Suess' classic work 

 " Das Antlitz der Erde," Professor Lartet's " Geologic de la Mer Morte," and 

 Professor Gregory's "Great Rift Valley," ch. xiii. I may also mention Professor 

 I. C. Eusseli's paper in this Magazine (1888, p. 338, etc.), and the one by 

 Mr. Hudleston on the Central African Lakes in the present volume. I have also 

 consulted papers by Dr. Dieuer and Dr. Blanekeuhoru, though to one or two of their 

 writings I have not had access. 



