Page:An Introduction to the Survey of Western Palestine.djvu/54

38 38 THE MEDITERRANEAN WATERSHED.

Jebel et Tur (Mount Gerizim), the details of which have been described. From Mount Gerizim it runs with the Jordan basin across the Sahel or Plain of el Mukhnah, and bends southward to Kh. el Kenim (alt. 2,700 feet), Akrabeh (alt. 2,045 feet) and the curious basin of Merj Sia, which lies between heights of 2,835 feet on the north and 2,710 feet on the west. Here .the waterparting takes a south-westerly course, crossing Tell Asur (alt. 3,318 feet), the village of Beitin or Bethel (alt. 2,890 feet), and Bireh (alt. 2,820 feet). At this point is the junction of the basins of Nahr el 'Auja, Jordan, and Nahr Kubin. The southern waterparting running with the basin of Nahr Eubin forms a great arc, continuing south-westward from Bireh to Saris (alt. 2,347 feet), and Beit Mahsir (alt. 1,790 feet), where it takes a north-west direction through Abu Shusheh, skirting er Eamleh, Surafend, and the road to Jaffa on the west, till it turns towards the coast at the trigonometrical points with altitudes of 261 feet and 240 feet.

The intricate system of watercourses composing this basin is primarily divisible into a northern and southern division.

The northern division includes the four streams and their tributaries, which unite near Tell el Mukhmar. They drain the whole of the northern waterparting, and also the eastern side southwards to Bireh. The northern is separated from the southern division, by an interior or sub-waterparting, which runs from Bireh, to Abu Kush, first by the " Eoman road " and then by the " ancient road." From Abu Kush, the dividing line proceeds close to Bir ez Zeit (alt. 2,665 feet), and round by the high road to Umm Suffah (alt. 1,997 feet), and so on through Deir en Nidham (alt. 1,934 feet), to Tibneh, Abud (alt. 1,240 feet), and along the northern side of the road from Abud to Deir Dakleh, whence it skirts the south side of Wady Sahury to Eantieh, and bending round north-westward to Khurbet Shaireh, passes over an altitude of 275 feet to the confluence at Jerisheh, where the two divisions unite.

The southern division has its outfall into the Nahr el