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198 198 THE MOUNTAINS OF UPPER GALILEE.

country viewed from Beit Jenn, at the head of the valley in April, is said by the same authority to be " bald, barren, and desolate, in the highest degree." The other branch of the Kurn drains the Bukeiah, which signifies a hollow between mountains, here forming a well-cultivated plain, and includ- ing among its population, who are chiefly Druzes, a few Jews, who are said to be the only Jews in Palestine engaged in agriculture, and who claim descent from families settled in this remote highland from time immemorial. This branch of the Kurn drains the interior slope of the Western Range. Between Teirshiha and Suhmata, the plain or hollow ter- minates in a deep and rocky gorge, at the outlet of which the two branches of the Upper Kurn unite, before descending westward to the sea, through the deep and rocky bottom of the narrow neck, into which the basin contracts on the western slope.

The north-eastern side of the Jurmuk Range seems to be characterised by its plains, forming fine tracts of cultivated land with plenty of pasture, woodlands, and orchards. Pic- turesque hills and valleys, and rocky glens, villages and vestiges of antiquity ; horses, cattle, and camels, sheep and goats, mules and asses, cats and dogs, poultry and game, birds and beasts of prey, contribute to the scene.

The plains spread out over the upper parts of the basins of el 'Amud, Wakkas, Hindaj, and Ezziyeh, and they extend from Meiron to el Jish and Delata, Alma, Salhah, Yarun, and Rumeish. This wide circuit surrounds a higher tier of more undulating ground, backed by the Jurmuk Range, and containing the villages of Kefr Birim and Sasa. On the north, the plains are bounded by the Marun Range, which forms a waterparting summit to a broad expanse of deeply fissured and densely wooded highland, abutting against the Western Range, whic h is indeed its escarpment towards the sea. Aligned between north- west and south-east, the Marun Range extends its spurs 'and valleys to the Upper Ezzlyeh on the south, and to the Upper Selukieh and the Eastern and Northern Ranges. Between Ras el Tireh, and Kh. el Yadhun,