Page:An Introduction to the Survey of Western Palestine.djvu/200

184 184 THE MOUNTAINS OF UPPER GALILEE.

Ras edh Dhahr and runs on through Jebel Husein, and Dahruj, to the Eastern Range, at a point rather more than half a mile on the south of Kh. el Menarah (alt. 2,805 feet). Meis is a favourite camping place for travellers, but none appear to have noticed its hydrographic isolation. From Ras edh Dhahr, the western range is intersected by Wady el Jemel and runs on to Jebel er Rueis. The Wady el Jemel drains a plateau on the north of the basin of Meis, and but for this outlet the plateau would form a similarly isolated basin. Beyond Jebel er Rueis, the range from the south, appears to meet the western range from the north, in Jebel Hunin ; but when the height of Rubb Thelathin (alt. 2,292 feet) is compared with that of Merkebeh (alt. 2,290 feet), and of el Hola (alt. 2,470 feet), it may be inferred that the con- tinuity of the elevation between Rubb Thelathin, Merkebeh, el Hola, and Ras edh Dhahr, calls for an accentuation of the hill drawing expressing those indications better than that of the present map. At all events, the continuity of the western range from Kulat esh Shukif to Deir el Ghabieh is made out, whether it joins Jebel Hunin or runs through Merkebeh and Hola.

The interval, properly so called, which has been traced from the Litany and Wady 'Aizakaneh on the north, to the basin of Meis on the south, does not stop at Meis, but is prolonged further south in the well known terrace or plateau of Kades (alt. 1,587 feet), the only altitude that is found from one end to the other of this intramontane tract. The eastern edge of the plateau of Kades is the prolongation of the lower part only of the Eastern Range in the line maintained by the upper part also, up to the northern end of the plateau. The plateau of Kades occupies the space caused by the westward recession of the waterparting along with the upper part of the Eastern Range. But it should not be overlooked that be- tween Kades and the waterparting lies a still higher terrace, running parallel with the waterparting and above Kades, from el Malkiyeh to Belideh, Kh. el Maserah, and up the Khallet Ghazaleh to the unnamed summit, where the westerly