the actual banks of the channel. Further up the river, it is said, the lower tract of cane-brake disappears; and the stream flows between the middle or second banks just described, which are there covered with trees and bushes.

We proceeded therefore to the place of crossing, where there was an opening through the canes and trees. Here the low banks of the channel were broken or worn away for the convenience of passing, and were now covered by the water. There was a still though very rapid current; the water was of a clayey colour, but sweet and delightfully refreshing, after the water to which we had been confined for the last two days since leaving 'Ain Jidy,-either rain-water standing in holes in the Wadys and full of animalculae, or the brackish waters of 'Ain el-Feshkhah. We estimated the breadth of the stream to be from eighty to one hundred feet. The guides supposed it to be now ten or twelve feet deep. I bathed in the river, without going out into the deep channel; the bottom here (a hollow place in the bank) was clayey mud with also blue clay. I waded out ten or twelve feet, and thus far the water was not over the hips; but a little further, several of the party who swam across, found it suddenly beyond their depth. The current was so strong, that even Komeh, a stout swimmer of the Nile, was carried down several yards in crossing. This place is strictly not a ford; we understood that the river could never be crossed here by animals without swimming; and the Aga of Jericho afterwards told us, that he was accustomed to swim his horse in crossing higher up.

The sand-hills which here form the upper banks, are of the same naked character as the desert we had passed over in coming to this spot. From them we could distinguish, some miles higher up the river, the ruined

convent of St. John the Baptist, standing upon the brow of the upper bank, or first descent from the plain, near the place where the Latin pilgrims bathe in the Jordan. The Arabs call it Kusr el-Yehûd, 'Jews' Castle.' The bathing-place of the Greek pilgrims is two or three miles below the convent; yet each party claims to bathe at the spot where our Lord was baptized by John. Far in the North, a sharp conical peak was seen standing out like a bastion from the western mountains; our Arabs called it Kurn Sürtübeh. Opposite to us across the river lay the plains of Moab. The eastern mountains here retire in a small arc of a circle, forming a sort of recess, and leaving the eastern plain much broader than in any other part. It is apparently covered with shrubs; especially towards the mountains, which seemed to be two or three miles distant. Just below the crossingplace, the Wady Hesbân comes in from the same mountains, descending through a verdant region at their foot, which indeed owes its fertility to the Wady. Further North, the similar Wady Sha'ib comes down from the vicinity of es-Salt, and enters the Jordan nearly East of Jericho. At its mouth is the ordinary ford of the river.1

THE JORDAN AND ITS VALLEY.

The present Arabic name for the Jordan is eshSheri'ah, 'the watering-place;' to which the epithet el-Kebir, the great,' is sometimes annexed.2 The

1) From the high bank near elHelu, Jebel es-Salt or Gilead bore N. 30° E. Kusr el-Yehûd N. Kurn Sürtübeh N. 8° W. 'Ain es-Sultan beyond Jericho, about N. 50° W. Kūsr Hajla N. 70° W. 2) To distinguish it from the VOL. II.

33

Sheri'at el-Mandhûr or Yarmûk, the ancient Hieromax, which joins it from the East about two hours below the lake of Tiberias. Burckhardt pp. 273, 274. Edrisi ed. Jaubert p. 338. Abulfedae Tab. Syr. p. 148.

form el-Urdun, however, is not unknown among Arabian writers. The common name of the great valley through which it thus flows below the lake of Tiberias, is el-Ghôr, signifying a depressed tract or plain, usually between two mountains; and the same name continues to be applied to the valley quite across the whole length of the Dead Sea, and for some distance beyond.2

It has so happened, that until the present century, most pilgrims and travellers have vised the valley of the Jordan only at Jericho; so that we have had no account of the features of its upper part in the vicinity of the lake of Tiberias. Of the earlier pilgrims indeed, Antoninus Martyr at the close of the sixth century, and St. Willibald in the eighth, passed down through the whole length of the valley from Tiberias to Jericho; and in the year 1100 king Baldwin I. accompanied a train of pilgrims from Jericho to Tiberias; but we have nothing more than a mere notice of these journies. In like manner, the various excursions of the crusaders across the Ghôr throw no light upon its character. In the year 1799 the French penetrated to the south end of the lake of Tiberias, but no further. In 1806, Seetzen crossed the valley just South of the same lake; but describes it only in very general terms.4 Burckhardt in 1812 was twice in its northern part; and travelled along it from Beisân to a point several hours below, on his way to es-Salt. Six years later, in the winter of 1818, Irby and Mangles passed

1) Abulfedae Tab. Syr. p. 147. Schultens Index in Vit. Saladin. art. Fluvius Jordanes.

2) It thus corresponds to the Aulon of Eusebius and Jerome; see Onomasticon.-On the Ghôr, see Edrisi par Jaubert pp. 337, 338. Abulfedae Tab. Syr. ed. Köhler pp. 8, 9. Schultens Index in Vit. Sa

lad. art. Algaurum. Reland Paläest. p. 365. Abulfeda says correctly that the same valley extends to Ailah.

3) Fulcher. Carnot. 21. p. 402. 4) Zach's Monatl. Corr. XVIII.

p. 350.

5) Travels, etc. pp. 274, 344, seq.

down from Tiberias to Beisân; thence crossed over into the country around Jerash; and returned from esSalt to Nâbulus, fording the Jordan several miles above Jericho. About the same time Mr. Bankes, accompanied by Buckingham, crossed the valley obliquely from Jericho, passing the river apparently at the same ford (or very near it) as Irby and Mangles.2

According to Burckhardt, the Ghôr at the upper end runs in a course from N. by E. to S. by W. and is about two hours broad.3 Opposite Jericho we found its general course to be the same; but in consequence of the retiring of the mountains on both sides, to which I have already alluded, its breadth is here much greater, being not less than three and a half or four hours. The Jordan issues from the lake of Tiberias near its S. W. corner, where are still traces of the site and walls of the ancient Tarichaea. The river at first winds very much, and flows for three hours near the western hills; then turns to the eastern, on which side it continues its course for several hours, to the district called Kurn el-Hemâr, 'Ass's Horn,' two hours below Beisân; where it again returns to the western side of the valley. Lower down, the Jordan follows more the middle of the great valley; though opposite Jericho and towards the Dead Sea, its course is nearer to the eastern mountains; about two thirds or three quarters of the valley lying here upon its western side.

A few hundred yards below the point where the Jordan issues from the lake of Tiberias, is a ford, close by the ruins of a Roman bridge of ten arches. About

two hours further down is another old bridge, called Jisr el-Mejâmi'a, consisting of one arch in the centre, with small arches upon arches at the sides; and also a Khân upon the western bank. Somewhat higher up, but in sight of this bridge, is another ford.2 That near Beisân lies in a direction S. S. E. from the town.3 Indeed, "the river is fordable in many places during summer; but the few spots where it may be crossed in the rainy season, are known only to the Arabs."

The banks of the Jordan appear to preserve everywhere a tolerably uniform character, such as we have described them above. "The river flows in a valley of about a quarter of an hour in breadth, [sometimes more and sometimes less,] which is considerably lower than the rest of the Ghôr;" in the northern part about forty feet. This lower valley, where Burckhardt saw it, was "covered with high trees and a luxuriant verdure, affording a striking contrast with the sandy slopes that border it on both sides." Further down, the verdure occupies in some parts a still lower strip along the river's brink. So we saw it; and so also it seems to be described by Pococke near the convent of St. John."

The channel of the river varies in different places; being in some wider and more shallow, and in others narrower and deeper. At the ford near Beisân on the 12th of March, Irby, and Mangles found the breadth to be one hundred and forty feet by measure; the stream was swift and reached above the bellies of the

1) Irby and Mangles, p. 301. Seetzen 1. c. p. 351. Messrs. Smith and Dodge crossed the river by this bridge in 1834. The Khân was then in use.

2) Buckingham 1. c. p. 448. Burckhardt p. 275.

3) Burckhardt p. 344.
4) Ibid. p. 345.

5) Burckhardt, pp. 344, 345.

6) "From the high bank indeed of the river, [meaning the usual level of the lower valley,] there is a descent in many places to a lower ground, which is four or five feet above the water, and is frequently covered with wood;" Pococke II. p. 33. fol.