Page:An Introduction to the Survey of Western Palestine.djvu/79

63 WADY ET TEIM AND NAHR EL HASBANY. 63

since the Palestine Association began the work which has been taken up by the Fund. The study of watersheds and basins commenced since accurate surveying supplied the requisite information, just as anatomy originated with the precise examination of the human frame. Formerly nothing was known of the Jordan further north than the fountains which supply its perennial waters on the south of Mount Hermon. The chief of these gushes out of the western side of Tell el Kady,* or the Judge's Mound (alt. 505 feet), and is one of the largest in the world, while another springs from the top of the same Tell directly above, and forms a distinct and considerable stream running to the south- west, and driving two mills, before it joins the other river. The ruins on the Tell are the remains of Dan, the northern counterpart of southern Beersheba, the foundation of which is recorded in the Books of Joshua and Judges. Its name is still retained by its fountains and stream, the 'Ain and Nahr el Leddan. The change from Dan to el Leddan is plainly traced by Dr. Smith in a note quoted by Dr. Robinson (" Bib. Res.," iii, 392), and Dr. Wilson remarked that Kady and Dan are respectively Arabic and Hebrew for a judge (" Lands of the Bible," ii, 172).

The next fountain in importance springs up at Banias (alt. 1,080 feet) in a nook of the mountain at the inner or north- eastern angle of the terrace, on which are the remains of this ancient place. The stream is called Nahr Banias and joins the Leddan in the plain. Not far below the confluence, a third affluent adds to the bulk of the stream ; it is the Nahr Hasbauy which comes from the Wady et Teim and the northern extremity of the basin. Near its outfall (alt. 140 feet) the Nahr Hasbany receives (1) the Nahr Bareighit, which has its source in the Merj 'Ayun at 'Ain ed Derderah near the Kasimiyeh, and a few miles above its great bend. The Bareighit becomes nearly dry in autumn. (2) The

high, and half a mile in diameter, its western side covered with a thicket of reeds, oaks, and oleanders. Tristram's " Land of Israel," 580. See also Monsieur Guerin, " Galilee," iii, 338.
 * An artificial looking mound of limestone rock, flat topped, eighty feet