Page:An Introduction to the Survey of Western Palestine.djvu/135

119 WADY SEIYAL. 119

by the Wady es Sennein, which joins the Seiyal in its gorge. The most western affluent of Wady es Sennein is the Wady Mutan Munjid, and the next is Wady Umm Jemat. The next descends through a rocky defile from Tawil el Butahiyeh and finally the Wady el Khuseibiyeh receives the rest of the northern drainage.

The delineation of the cliffs on the south of the outfall of the Seiyal has been considerately extended so far as to include Sebbeh, the site of the extraordinary fortress of ancient Masada, discovered by Dr. Eobinson.* See p. 168.

Every one who appreciates the work accomplished by the Palestine Exploration Fund, must regret that its southern termination leaves so much beyond that is to a considerable extent utterly unknown, while altogether only scraps of information enable crude ideas to be formed of it. And yet it is a region in which some of the most interesting questions of biblical topography remain to be solved. It is the Negeb or South Country of the Scriptures ; and the Eev. Edward Wilton's learned attempt to penetrate the darkness in which it remains, sufficiently expresses the scholarly interest which it attracts. No doubt the extension of the Survey in this direction will have the attention of the Managers of the Fund.

The division of the rivers into primary and secondary basins, has served to exhibit their relations to the great waterparting dividing the Jordan and Dead Sea from the Mediterranean Watershed or slope.

Attention has also been drawn to the parallelism which the upper valleys frequently bear to the great waterparting, which in respect to the general elevation of the country may be considered its main range. Such parallelism is a common feature of mountainous regions, and is perhaps most deve- loped in the most mountainous. This remark is supported in a striking manner in Palestine by the occurrence of the most ample development of upper valleys parallel to the main

303-314. Gender's " Tent Work," ii, 139.
 * Kobinsori, "Bib. Kes.," i, 525, 526. Tristram's "Land of Israel,"

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