377 
13. It is evident that at one period the river covered the 
entire breadth of this ravine, for the sides bear everywhere 
traces of the action of water ; and indeed, the ravine could 
only have been cut out by such action. Now, however, 
by far the largest portion of its bed is dry and coated with 
deep alluvial soil, here and there cultivated by the nomad 
Arabs, but generally covered with rank grass, or jungles of 
oleander, willow, and tamarisk ; while the river has another 
channel, averaging about 30 yards wide, cut deeply into the 
alluvial bed of the ravine, and most tortuous in its course ; 
now sweeping the western, now the eastern bank of the ravine, 
and occasionally doubling back, like the coils of a serpent. 
Through this channel the river rushes in a rapid current. 
During simmer and autumn it is low, and tho banks of its 
channel a*e from five to ten feet high ; but in spring, when 
the fountains are copious, and the tributaries swollen with 
melting aiow, the stream rises up to the level of its banks t 
and in places, especially in the lower part of the valley near 
the Dead Sea, it overflows the whole bottom of the ravine. 
When I wis going from. Jerusalem to Moab, in the spring of 
1874, I fcund the entire bed of the ravine opposite Jericho 
covered with water. The fords were then impassable, and I 
was obligel to travel a day’s journey northward, so as to cross 
by the fe’ry-boat on the caravan route from Nabulus to 
Es-Salt. 
• 14. Ths fact illustrates that statement in the book of 
Joshua, wlere, in describing the passage of the river by the 
Israelites, be writer says : “ The Jordan is full up to all his 
banks all tie time of harvest” (Josh. iii. 15). In the low 
plain harV'St begins early in April, which is the time of 
highest flo<d ; and then the swollen river not only rises over 
its immediate banks, but covers the ground up to the outer 
banks of tb ravine. I noticed at several places south of the 
ford of Dauieh two distinct lines of terraces along the Jordan, 
below the general level of the plain, showing that at some 
remote peiod the river ran upon a higher level ; and that, 
from some cause, it sunk forty or fifty feet to its present 
channel. U1 this process of subsidence, however, must have 
been prehitoric, and could have had no connection with that 
catastrophi which led to the destruction of Sodom. It would 
be interestng to make a complete survey of the banks of 
the Jordan so minute and systematic as to show whether the 
gradual sirring of the bed of the river has been connected 
with any ccrresponding depression of the Dead Sea. 
15. Anoher feature of the Jordan valley deserves the 
attention o the geologist, and perhaps, also, to some extent. 
