Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume II.djvu/537

 PALAESTINA. tortuous manner between them. In many places these cliffs are like walls. About this part of the Jordan the lower plain might be perhaps 1 J or 2 miles broad, and so full of the most rank and luxuriant vegetation, like a jungle, that in a few spots only can anything approach its banks. Below Beisan the higher ter- races on either side begin to close in, and to narrow the fertile space below; the hills become irregular and only partly cultivated ; and by degrees the whole Ghor resumes its original form. The zig- zag course of the river is still prettily marked by lines of green foliage on its banks, as it veers from the cliffs on one side to those on the other. This general character of the river and of the Ghor is continued to the Dead Sea, the mountains on either side of the upper valley approaching or receding, and the river winding in the lower valley between bare cliffs of soft limestone, in some places not less than 300 or 400 feet high, having many shallows and some large falls. The American expedition added little to the information contained in the paper of our enterprising countryman, who only survived- his exploit one month. Lieut. Lynch's report, how- ever, fully confirms all Lieut. Jlolyneus's observa- tions; and he sums up the results of the survey in the following sentence: — " The great secret of the depression between lake Tiberias and the Dead Sea is solved by the tortuous course of the Jordan. In a space of 60 miles of latitude and 4 or 5 miles of longitude, the Jordan traverses at least 200 miles. . . . We have plunged down twenty-seven threaten- ing rapids, besides a great many of lesser magni- tude." (Lynch, Karrative of the United States' Expedition to the Jordan, cfc, p. 265.) It is satis- factory also to find that the trigonometrical survey of the officers attached to the American expedition confirms the results arrived at by Lieut. Symonds. (Dr. Kobinson, Theological Review for 1848, pp. 764—768.) It is obvious that these phaenomena have an im- portant bearing on the historical notices of the river; .■md it is curious to observe (as Mr. Petermann has remarked), in examining the results of De Bertou, llussegger, and Von Wildenbruch, that the depression both of the Dead Sea and of the lake of Tiberias in- creases in a chronological order (with only one excep- tion) ; which may perhaps indicate that a continual change is going on in the level of the entire Ghor, espe- cially as it is well proved that the whole Jordan valley, with its lakes, not only has been but still is sub- ject to volcanic action ; as Russegger has remarked that the mountains between Jerasalem and the Jordan, in the valley of the Jordan itself, and those around the Dead Sea, bear unequivocal evidence of Volcanic agency, such as disruptions, upheaving, faults, &c. &c., — proofs of which agency are still notorious in continual earthquakes, hotsprings, and formations of asphalt. One of the earliest historical facts connected with this river is its periodical overflow during the season of barley-harvest (JosA. iii. 15; 1 Chron. xii. 15; Jeremiah, xii. 5 ; see Blunt's Undesigned Coin- cidences, pp. 113, 114); and allusion is made to this fact after the captivity. {Ecclus. xxiv. 26; Aris- teus, Epist. ad Philocratem.) The river in the vicinity of Jericho was visited by the writer at all seasons of the year, but he never witnessed an over- flow, nor were the Bedouins who inhabit its banks acquainted with the phaenomenon. The American expedition went down the river in the month of April, and were off Jericho at Easter, yet they wit- PALAESTIXA. 521 nessed nothing of the kind, though Lieut. Lynch remarks, " the river is in the latter stage of a freshet ; a few weeks earlier or later, and passage would have been impracticable." Considerably further north, however, not far below Beisan. Lieut. Molyneux remarked " a quantity of deposit in the plain of the Jordan, and the marks of water in various places at a distance from the river, from which it was evident that the Jordan widely over- flows its banks; and the sheikh informed him that in winter it is occasionally half a mile across; which accounts for the luxuriani vegetation in this part of the Ghor'" (I. c. p. 117). It would appear from this tiiat the subsidence of the basin of the Dead Sea and the more rapid fall of the Jordan consequent upon it, which has also cut out for it a deeper channel, has prevented the overflow except in those parts where the fall is not so rapid. Another change may also be accounted for in the same manner. " The fords of the Jordan" were once few and far between, as is evident from the historical notices. {Josh. ii. 7 ; Judges, iii. 28, vii. 24, xii. 5.) But Lieut. Molyneux .says of the upper part of its course, " I am within the mark when I say that there are many hundreds of places where we might have walked across, without wetting our feet, on the large rocks and stones" (p. 115). The thick jungle on the banks of the river was formerly a covert for wild besists, from which they were dislodged by the periodical overflow of the river; and "the lion coming up from the swelling of Jordan " is a familiar figure in the prophet Jere- miah (xlix. 19, 1. 44). It was supposed until very recently that not only the lion but all other wild beasts were extinct in Palestine, or that the wild boar was the sole occupant of the jungle ; but the seamen in company with Lieut. Molyneux reported having seen " two tigers and a boar " in their pas- sage down the stream (p. 118). The principal tributaries of the Jordan join it from the east ; the most considerable are the Yarnmk [Gadaea] and the Ze7-ka [Jabbok]. This river is principally noted in sacred history for the miraculous passage of the children of Israel under Joshua (iii.), — the miracle was repeated twice afterwards in the passage of Elijah and Elisha (2 Kings, ii. 8, 14), — and for the baptism of our Lord {St. Itlatt. iii. &c.). It is honoured with scanty notice by the classical geographers. Strabo reckons it the largest river of Syria (xvi. p. 755). Pliny is somewhat more communicative. He speaks of Paneas as its source, consistently with Josephus. " Jordanis amnis oritur h fonte Paneade, qui nonien dedit Caesareae : amnis amoenus, et quatenus lo- corum situs patitur ambitiosus, accolisque se prae- bens, velut invitus. Asphaltiden lacum dirum natura petit, a quo postreino ebibitur, aquasque laudatas perdit pestilentibus mistas. Ergo ubi prima convalliura fuit occasio in lacum se furidit, quern plures Genesaram vocant, etc." {Hist. Nat. v. 15.) Tacitus, though more brief, is still more accurate, as he notices the Bahr Iluleh as well as the sea of Tiberias. " Nee Jordanes pelago accipitnr i sed unum atque alteram lacum, integer perfluit : tertio retinetur." {Uist. v. 6.) The ancient name for El-Ghor was Aulon, and the modern native name of the Jordan is Es- Shiriah. (Karl von Pannier, Paliistina, 2nd ed., 1850, pp. 48—54, 449—452; Hitter, Erdkunde, ^-c.irfvi Asien, vol. 15, pp. 181—556, a. d. 1850, Dcr