Page:An Introduction to the Survey of Western Palestine.djvu/196

180 180 THE MOUNTAINS OF UPPER GALILEE.

50 feet, and sometimes more. The same authority also alludes to the curious way in which the channel of the Has- bany Eiver forms a deep and narrow chasm along an upper terrace of the mountain side, instead of following the lowest ground. These distinct features are scarcely made out on the maps, and attention will no doubt be paid to them in the continuation of the Survey from its present limits to the east of the Jordan. It would be useful to define the base of the slopes, or the line of lowest depression in the upper part of the Jordan Valley, where the Hasbany departs from that line, and cuts its channel through the higher portion of the basaltic bank on the west of the valley. This base line seems to follow the Nahr el Leddan up to Wady en Nimr, and the latter wady till it forks at the foot of the slope which gives rise to 'Am el Tineh. The line, doubtless, ascends the branch from the north, but the survey does not at present assist in carrying it farther This part of the base line is of import- ance, as it divides the western slope of Mount Hermon, from the eastern slope descending from the Mediterranean waterparting, and it is an essential element in an attempt to understand the form of the ground in this interesting locality.

The slopes around the northern end of Huleh Plain may be resolved into three divisions. (1) Up to the northern termination of the Merj 'Ayun, the slope from the Mediterranean waterparting may be considered to terminate in the stream which proceeds within the map from 'Am Derderah, and runs to the Jordan as Kahr Bareighit. (2) The range on the east of Merj 'Ayun, dividing that plain from the Hasbany, may be conveniently regarded as the summit of the slope, along the eastern side of which, the channel of the Hasbany is cut, on its way to the Huleh Plain ; the base being found in a line along Wady Leddan and Wady Nimr to the Hasbany before it passes on to the slope ; (3) The slopes of Hermon, ending in the base line before men- tioned.

It is the slope of the second division which Dr. Robinson