Page:An Introduction to the Survey of Western Palestine.djvu/40

24 24 THE MEDITERRANEAN WATERSHED.

from the border of the Mukutt'a basin. Four of them occur between Eas Hazweh and Neby Duhy (alt. 1,690 feet). Between Neby Duhy and Sheikh Barkan (alt. 1,698 feet) is the Nahr Jalud or the Valley of Jezreel, which falls into the Jordan below Beisan. Three more outfalls into the Jordan complete this series up to Tannin.

From Tannin to the sea, the waterparting takes a winding north-westerly course. As far as Musmus road, the Mukutt'a is contiguous with the maritime basin of Nahr el Mefjir, formerly named Nahr Akhdar. The Nahr el Mefjir has a common waterparting with the Jordan, and is therefore of the first class. From Musmus road north-westward, the water- parting divides the Mukutt'a from the second class basins of Nahr ez Zerka, and Nahr ed Dufleh, the latter ending at Wady el Milh. Here the waterparting ascends the main ridge of Mount Carmel, which it pursues up to the deflection of the ridge road down towards Haifa, and following this descending route it meets the coast on the east of the town.

The Mukutt'a Eiver falls into the southern part of the Bay of Acre near Haifa. About four miles from the bay, it is joined by the Wady el Melek, near the village of el Harbaj. The Wady el Melek is the main drain of the northern part of the basin. Its most distant sources are at Ailbun, Nimrin, and Lubieh, including the plains of Buttauf and Toron, and the hills as far south as Neby Sain (alt. 1,602 feet), close to Nazareth, from whence the southern boundary of the affluents of Wady el Melek may be traced by Ailut to Beit Lahm, Umm el 'Amed (alt. 643 feet), and Harbaj. The eastern part of the Plain of Buttauf has usually no outfall beyond its own swamp, which dries up in summer ; but judging from Dr. Thomson's account of his passage from Eummaneh to Kana,* across *a spongy morass, the overflow in floods probably reaches Wady Eummaneh. The Eiver Mukutt'a itself drains the central and southern divisions of its basin. Its course is from south-east to north-west, the distance between its farthest head


 * " The Land and the Book," p. 426.