9. RiVers. The Jordan is the only river of any note in Palestine, and besides it there are only two or three perennial streams. The greater number of the streams which figure in the his tory, and find a place in the maps, are merely tor rents or water-courses.
(1) The Jordan. We should like to consider this river simply as the stream issuing from the reservoir of the lake Huleh, but custom requires its source to be traced to some one or more of the streams which form that reservoir. The two largest streams, which enter the lake on the north, are each formed by the junction of two others. It is usual to refer the origin of a river to its remotest sources; but in this case the larg est and longest, being the most easterly of the two streams, does not appear to have been at any time identified with the Jordan—that honor hav ing for ages been ascribed to the western stream; this river has distinct sources, at Banias and at Tel-el-Ka& At Banias (anciently Paneas, from the worship of Pan) a stream issues from a spacious cavern, under a wall of rock, at the base of the Heish mountains. Directly over the cavern, and in other parts, in the face of the perpendicu lar rock, niches have been cut to receive statues. Here Herod built a temple in honor of Augustus; and there was a town somewhat below, traces of which still remain. This is, undoubtedly, that place and cavern, at the foot of a mountain, which Josephus describes as the main source of the Jor dan (Joseph. Antiq. xv. io. 3; De Bell. ltd. I. 21. 3).
The true Jordan—the stream that quits this lake —passes rapidly along the narrow valley, and be tween well-shaded banks, to the lake of Gen nesareth : the distance is about nine miles. Nearly two miles below the lake is a bridge, called Ja cob's bridge; and here the river is about eighty feet wide, and four feet deep.
On leaving the lake of Gennesareth the river enters a very broad valley, or Ghor, by which name the natives designate a depressed tract or plain between mountains. This name is applied to the plain of the Jordan, not only between the lake of Gennesareth and the Dead Sea, but quite across the Dead Sea, and to some distance beyond. The valley varies in width from five to ten miles between the mountains on each side. The river
does not make its way straight through the midst of the Ghor; it flows first near the western hills, then near the eastern, but advances to the Dead Sea through the middle of the valley. Within this valley there is a lower one, and within that, in some parts, another still lower, through which the river flows; the inner valley is about half a mile wide, and is generally green and beautiful, covered with trees and bushes, whereas the upper or large valley is, for the most part, sandy or barren. The distance between the two lakes, in a direct line, is about sixty miles. In the first part of its course the stream is clear, but it becomes turbid as it advances to the Dead Sea, probably from passing over beds of sandy clay. The water is very wholesome, always cool, and nearly taste less. The breadth and depth of the river varies much in different places and at different times of the year. Dr. Shaw calculates the average breadth at thirty yards, and the depth at nine feet. In the season of flood, in April and early in May, the river is full, and sometimes over flows its lower banks, to which fact there are several allusions in Scripture (Josh. iii :15 ; Chron. xii :15 ; Jer. xii :5 ; xlix :19; I :44 ; Ecclus. xxiv:26). (Nau, p. 272; Shaw, ii.156; Paxton, p. 158; Stephens, ii. 361-363; Burckhardt, pp. 39-43; 314. 345, 514; Irby and Mangles, pp. 283 29o; 3o4, 326; Buckingham, Arab Tribes, pp. 40' 406; Palestine, i. 90, 93; Robinson, ii. 255-267; iii. 3°9-312; 347, 355; Olin, ii. 229-334; Schubert, iii. 8o-84; Pocock, ii. 71; Richardson, ii. 425, 445, 446; Lindsay, ii. 65, 91; Elliot, 74-77.) (See JoaDAN.) (2) The Kishon, that 'ancient river,' by whose wide and rapid stream the hosts of Sisera were swept away (Judg. iv :13; v:2i), has been no ticed under the proper head. (See Kisnox.) (3) The Belus, now called Nahr Kardanus, en ters the bay of Acre higher up than the Kishon. It is a small stream, fordable even at its mouth in summer. It is not mentioned in the Bible, and is chiefly celebrated for the tradition, that the accidental vitrefaction of its sands taught man the art of making glass.