Page:An Introduction to the Survey of Western Palestine.djvu/201

185 THE EASTERN RANGE. 185

recess of the Eastern Eange begins. This is not a new feature, but it has never been delineated before with the precision of the New Survey.* These terraces of Malkiyeh, Belideh, and Kades, are drained into the Huleh Marsh by the steep descent of Wady 'Arus. But the plateau itself seems to have a more gradual passage to the base of the mountain by the Ard el Dawamin, which forms a step downwards to Ard el Kheit and the shores of Lake Huleh. This step is included in a. small basin, the western limit of which is in a line with the eastern edge of Kades plateau. There is indeed in this succession of natural features, confined between parallel ranges, a prolonged line of elevated lateral communication, extending from the Ard el Kheit, through the Kades plateau, Meis and 'Aizakaneh, to the Kasimiyeh ; and if the Survey extended further north the line might be pursued to the fork of Wady Jermuk with the Litany, and so continued either by Coele Syria or by the Wady Jermuk, the Upper Zaherany, and the Upper Auwaly to the latitude of Beirut.

There is one more occasion to recur again to Wady 'Aizakaneh, Parallel to that valley, but much more extensively developed both in length and breadth, is another affluent of the Kasimiyeh, coming from the south and rising at Marun er Ras (alt. 3,083 feet), in the midst of the higher plateau of Upper Galilee. Its principal channel is Wady Selukieh, the name of Wady Hajeir which formerly assumed that dis- tinction, being now applied to a tributary. Although Wady Selukieh belongs to the northern slope, and wijl have to be considered in connection with that part of the subject, it is also related to a portion of the eastern slope, in connection wit!} the upper part of Wady Hindaj, which enters Huleh Lake on the south of Ard ed Dawamin.

The Wady Hindaj marks a fresh and striking change in the features of the Eastern Range. The recess distinguished by the. Plateau of Kades is backed by the Eastern Range and waterparting between Neby Muheibib and Jebel el Ghabieh.


 * Robinsop, "Pib. Res.," itf ; 367.