Page:An Introduction to the Survey of Western Palestine.djvu/28

12 basins in some cases are nearly as important as those of the first class, while others scarcely deserve notice. The following are of the second class between Tyre and Acre, viz.:— Wady el 'Akkib, Wady Shema, Wady ez Zerka, Wady Kerkera, Nahr Mefshukh, Wady el Majnuneh, and Nahr Semeiriyeh. The consecutive upper portions of the first class basins, constitute an elevated plateau, between the waterparting range, and an irregular, ill-defined, outer range, which gives rise to the streams of the second class basins, while it is intersected by the gorges through which the streams of the plateau descend to the sea.

This basin is in contact with the Kasimiyeh Basin from the sea eastward and southward to a mile west of Beit Yahfn; thence to Kefrah, it joins the basin of Wady el Ezziyeh; and from Kefrah to the sea, it is bordered by the basin of Wady el 'Akkab, and smaller channels near Tyre.

Wady el Hubeishiyeh was named Wady el Mezra'ah, by Dr. Robinson and others. Mezra'ah is a place on the Wady Ashfr, the name of the middle part of this wady. Scarcely anything beyond the name is found in Dr. Robinson's map. The map to Mons. V. Guerin's "Galilee" is more ample in detail, but the only name given to this wady in it, is O. Achour, the equivalent in French to Wady Ashtr. Much more complete in this part is Lieutenant Van de Velde's map, and also the map of the Holy Land in Dr. William Smith's Ancient Atlas. But in those maps as in Mons. Guerin's and others, the Wady Humraniyeh (which is the northern branch of el Hubeishiyeh) is unnamed and misrepresented, its upper part being made tributary to Nahr Kasimiyeh. The addition of the upper Humraniyeh to the basin of el Hubeishiyeh extends the basin as far north as Sarifa (Therifeh in some maps).

The Basin of Wady el Hubeishiyeh is now found to be drained by two imain channels, of which the Wady el