Page:An Introduction to the Survey of Western Palestine.djvu/138

122 122 THE MARITIME PLAINS.

The most remarkable feature along the coast is the rocky promontory of Tyre, projected about a mile into the sea, and united to the mainland by an isthmus of half a mile in width, which affords shelter to shipping. An account of this famous site will appear in the " Memoirs," together with other parti- culars which cannot be noticed here. The plain is not very fertile, or its cultivation is limited, but there are large gardens for vegetables and fruit, besides patches of wheat and barley.

The wadys crossing the plain, beginning with the Kasimiyeh on the north, and ending with Wady Shema on the south, are notified in the first part of this introduction. The mountains on the east will be noticed hereafter.

From Has el Abyad or the White Cape, to Has en Nakura or the Hewn Headland, a distance of six miles, the moun- tains Of Galilee extend either quite or near to the sea, and end in lofty white cliffs at the headland, and also at some intermediate places. They separate the Plain of Tyre from the Plain of Acre.

The Maritime Plain of Acre, and the Plain of Megiddo.

The northern limit of the Plain of Acre is the mountain range of Jebel Mushakkah, which terminates in the headland of Eas en Nakura. The southern limit is Mount Carmel, 20 miles distant. The coast runs in an unbroken line, a little west of south, as far as the fortified town and harbour of Acre, 'Akka, or St. Jean d'Acre, the biblical Accho and Ptolemais. Between Acre and the northern cape of Mount Carmel (Ras el Kerum), the coast recedes back into a bay of eight miles in length, and varying in width from one mile on the north at Acre, to three miles on the south, where the port or anchorage of Haifa lies at the foot of Mount Carmel. Dr. Kitto described the bay as about three leagues wide, and two leagues in depth, but the meaning is not quite clear. From Acre to Jebel Mushakkah, or a distance of 12 miles, the plain is about four miles wide. It is intersected by the Wadys Kerkera, el Kurn, es Salik, Mefshuk, Majmmeh, and Semeiriyeh, which descend from the mountains of Upper