Page:An Introduction to the Survey of Western Palestine.djvu/156

140 140 THE MARITIME PLAINS.

exceptional indications of the advance occur at Berkusieh and Suinmeil. South of the range the advance becomes general, and is denned by the fine valley which crosses the range from Keratiya in the plain, to Bureir, Simsim, and Tumrah, on the way to Gaza. The change is modified here also, by the valleys which run back from Bureir into the hills, at Tell el Hesy and Huj. South of Tumrah the mass of the hills recedes eastward, and nine miles south-east of that place they send a spur to the south-west, dividing the broken plain on the east of Gaza from the pastures of Wady esh Sheriah.

The range of hills on the west of the Bureir valley is also more elevated and bolder than any in a similar position further north. It has a culminating height of 426 feet, and extends from Esdud to Simsim and Deir Sineid, on the north of Gaza. Of course these hills are traversed in all directions ; but the main road from Gaza to the north follows their western side, and sometimes encroaches on the sandy downs towards the sea.

North of Gaza, the sand-downs are interrupted by the passage to the sea of Wady el Hesy, with the village and gardens of Herbieh on its north or right bank. Mons. V. Guerin gives the Wady el Hesy in this part the name of Nahr Eribiah or Nahr A'skoulan, evidently from the village of Eribiah or Herbieh, and the ruins of ancient Askelon on the north. But it should be observed that Askelon is not included either in the basin of Wady el Hesy or in the partly adjoining basin of Nahr Sukereir on the north. It is in a small coastal basin (like that of Nahr Falik beyond Jaffa) which is chiefly drained by Wady el Bireh and its affluents, and has its outlet in a sink among the sand-downs on the north of Hamameh. The former outlet of this wady, before the sands blocked up its channel, seems not unlikely to have been at Bir esh Shekeir, where there is an opening in the cliffs which line the coast. In this direction also, may have fallen the drainage of Wady el Jabbar near el Mejdel, and' that of the valley on the west of El Mejdel and Hamameh. If the outfall of the basin was at Bir esh