Page:An Introduction to the Survey of Western Palestine.djvu/195

179 THE EASTERN RANGE. 179

of Kh. el Menarah (alt. 2,806 feet). Further north, obser- vations are found at Jebel Hunin (alt. 2,951 feet), Odeitha (alt. 2,215 feet), and Neby 'Aueidah (alt. 2,814 feet). On some future occasion it would be desirable to fix the cul- minating points on the west of the Merj Ayun, also around the curious quadrilateral basin which is deficient of outfall, and includes the villages of Meis. The height of the culminating point along that part of the waterparting range between Kades and Aitherun is wanted ; and also the altitudes that connect Delata with Jebel el Ghabieh, where the range is intersected by the remarkable rocky chasm, that communi- cates between the upper and lower parts of the Hindaj Basin.

The slope by which this Eastern Eange descends to its base is varied and interesting, but the facts are inadequately demonstrated. The altitude of the base line is fixed at the Sea of Galilee at 682'5 below sea level ; it is also expressed near the Jisr Benat Y'akub, where the river is 43 feet below sea level. But at the Huleh Lake, the altitude of the surface is not inserted on the maps, and the Memoirs on sheet iv, while reporting that the observations made the surface of the lake seven feet above the Mediterranean, add that " they were not very good." In the Huleh Plain there is an ob- servation excellently placed at the junction of the Jordan with all of its affluents, before the river enters the Huleh Marsh. This altitude is 140 feet above sea level. Others are given at El Mansurah (alt. 245 feet) ; at Kh. Dufnah (alt. 390 feet) ; at Tell el Kady (alt. 505 feet) ; at Kh. Dahr es Saghir (alt. 660 feet). This is the extent to which the altitudes partially elucidate the inclination of the base line of the eastern slope of Upper Galilee. It is an unfinished work. The course of the Jordan itself is cut short in the midst of its descent from the elevated hollow of Coele Syria to the much lower Plain of Huleh. Dr. Eobinson called attention to the six successive terraces, by which the descent is made,* with a drop between each, generally not less than


 * " Bib. Ees.," iii, 391. " Phys. Geog. H. Land," 68.