east winds, aveμos Tupovinos, that drove every thing before it. (Acts xxvii. 14.) Such winds are common in the Mediterranean to this day, where they are called Levanters, the term Levant meaning that country which lies at the eastern extremity of that sea.1

III. In consequence of the paucity of showers in the East, water is an article of great importance to the inhabitants. Hence, in Lot's estimation, it was a principal recommendation of the plain of Jordan that it was well watered every where; (Gen. xiii. 10.) and the same advantage continued in later ages to be enjoyed by the Israelites, whose country was intersected by numerous brooks and streams; whence it is not more emphatically than beautifully described as a land of brooks of water, of fountains and depths, that spring out of vallies and hills. And the same preference is given to this day by the Eelauts (a Tartar tribe occupying a district in the northern part of the Persian empire,) who carry their flocks to the highest parts of the mountains, where the blessings of pasturage and of good water are to be found in abundance. The knowledge of this circumstance will perhaps impart new force to the promises made to the Gentiles by the evangelical prophet. Their pastures shall be in all high places, they shall not hunger nor thirst; neither shall the sun or heat smite them; for he that hath mercy on them shall lead them, even by the springs of water shall he guide them. (Isa. xlix. 9—11.2) See also Rev. vii. 16, 17.

Although rivers are frequently mentioned in the sacred writings, yet, strictly speaking, the only river in the Holy Land is the Jordan, which is sometimes designated in the Scripture as the river without any addition; as also is the Nile (Gen. xli. 1. Exod. i. 22. ii. 5. iv. 9. vii. 18. and viii. 3. 9. 11.), and, occasionally, the Euphrates (as in Jer. ii. 18.); in those cases, the tenor of the discourse must determine which is the river actually intended by the sacred writers. The name of river is also given to inconsiderable streams and rivulets, as to the Kishon (Judges iv. 7. and v. 21.) and the Arnon. (Deut. iii. 16.3)

The principal river which waters Palestine is the JORDAN or YarDan, i. e. the river of Dan, so called because it takes its rise in the vicinity of the little city of Dan. Its true source is in the lake Phiala near Cæsarea Philippi, at the foot of Antilibanus, whence it passes under ground, and, emerging to the light from a cave in the vicinity of Paneas, it flows due south through the centre of the country, intersecting the lake Merom and the sea or lake of Galilee, and (it is said) without mingling with its waters; and it loses itself in the lake Asphaltites or the Dead Sea, into which it rolls a considerable volume of deep water, with such rapidity as to prevent a strong, active, and expert swimmer from swimming across it. The course of the Jordan is about one hundred miles; its breadth and

1 Shaw's Travels in Barbary, &c. vol. ii. pp. 127–133.

2 Morier's Second Journey through Persia, p. 121.

3 In a few instances, the sea is called a river, as in Hab. iii. 8. where the Red Sea is intended.

depth are various. Dr. Shaw computed it to be about thirty yards broad, and three yards or nine feet in depth; and states that it discharges daily into the Dead Sea, about 6,090,000 tons of water.1 Viscount Chateaubriand (who travelled nearly a century after him) found the Jordan to be six or seven feet deep close to the shore, and about fifty paces in breadth. The late Count Volney asserts it to be scarcely sixty paces wide at its embouchure. Messrs. Bankes and Buckingham, who crossed it in January, 1816, pretty nearly at the same ford over which the Israelites passed on their first entering the promised land, found the stream extremely rapid; and as it flowed at that part over a bed of pebbles, its otherwise turbid waters were tolerably clear, as well as pure and sweet to the taste.2

Antiently, the Jordan overflowed its banks about the time of barley harvest (Josh. iii. 15. iv. 18. 1 Chron. xii. 15. Jer. xlix. 19.), or the feast of the passover; when, the snows being dissolved on the mountains, the torrents discharged themselves into its channel with great impetuosity. When visited by Mr. Maundrell at the beginning of the last century, he could discern no sign or probability of such inundations, though so late as the 30th of March; and so far was the river from overflowing, that it ran almost two yards below the brink of its channel. It may be said to have two banks,-the first that of the river in its natural state; the second, that of its overflowings. After descending the outermost bank, the traveller proceeds about a furlong upon a level strand, before he comes to the immediate bank of the river. This second bank is now (as it antiently was) so beset with bushes, reeds, tamarisks, willows, oleanders, and other shrubs and trees, which form an asylum for various wild animals, that no water is perceptible until the traveller has made his way through them.3 In this thicket, several kinds of wild beasts used formerly to conceal themselves, until the swelling of the river drove them from their coverts. To this fact the prophet Jeremiah alludes, when he compares the impatience of Edom and Babylon under the divine judgments, to the coming up of a lion from the swellings of Jordan. (Jer. xlix. 19.) On the level strand above noticed it probably was, that John the Baptist stood, and pointed to the stones of which it was composed, when he exclaimed, I say unto you, that God is able of THESE STONES to raise up children unto Abraham; and, turning to the second bank, which was overgrown with various shrubs and trees that had been suffered to grow wild for ages, he added, and now also the axe is laid unto the root of THE TREES: therefore every tree, which bringeth not forth good FRUIT, is hewn down, and cast into the fire. (Matt. iii. 9, 10.) The passage of this deep and rapid river by the Israelites, at the most unfavourable 1 Shaw's Travels, vol. ii. pp. 156, 157. 2 Buckingham's Travels, p. 315.

3 Maundrell's Journey, p. 110. Dr. Macmichael's Travels from Moscow to Constantinople, in the years 1817, 1818, p. 191. (Lond. 1819. 4to.) The Jordan is annually frequented by many thousand pilgrims, chiefly of the Greek church, under the protection of the Moosillim, or Turkish governor of Jerusalem, and a strong military escort. Ibid. pp. 191, 192. Richardson's Travels, vol. ii. p. 387.

season, when augmented by the dissolution of the winter snows, was more manifestly miraculous, if possible, than that of the Red Sea ; because here was no natural agency whatever employed; no mighty winds to sweep a passage as in the former case; no reflux in the tide on which minute philosophers might fasten to depreciate the miracle. It seems, therefore to have been providentially designed, to silence cavils respecting the former: it was done at noon-day, in the presence of the neighbouring inhabitants; and it struck terror into the kings of the Amorites and Canaanites westward of the river, whose hearts melted, neither was there any spirit in them any more, because of the children of Israel. (Josh. v. 1.)

The other remarkable streams or rivulets of Palestine are the following: 1. The Arnon, which descends from the mountains of the same name, and discharges itself into the Dead Sea:-2. The Sihor (the Belus of antient geographers, at present called the Kardanah) has its source about four miles to the east of the heads of the river Kishon. It waters the plains of Acre and Esdraelon, and falls into the sea at the gulph of Keilah :-3. The brook Jabbok takes its rise in the same mountains, and falls into the river Jordan. It is a rapid stream, flowing over a rocky bed; its waters are clear, and agreeable to the taste, and its banks are very thickly wooded with oleander and plane trees, wild olives, wild almonds, and numerous other trees. By the Arabs it is now termed Nahr-el-Zerkah, or the river of Zerkah, from a neighbouring station or village of that name.2-4. The Kanah, or Brook of Reeds, springs from the mountains of Judah, but only flows during the winter, and it falls into the Mediterranean Sea near Cæsarea: it formerly separated the tribe of Ephraim from that of Manasseh. (Josh. xvii. 8, 9.)— 5. The brook Besor (1 Sam. xxx. 9.) falls into the same sea between Gaza and Rhinocorura.-6. The Kishon issues from the mountains of Carmel, at the foot of which it forms two streams; one flows eastward into the sea of Galilee, and the other, taking a westerly course through the plain of Jezreel or Esdraelon, discharges itself into the Mediterranean Sea. This is the stream noticed in 1 Kings xviii. 40.-7. Kedron, Kidron, or Cedron, as it is variously termed (2 Sam. xv. 23. 1 Kings xv. 13. 2 Kings xxiii. 6. 12. 2 Chron. xxix. 16. Jer. xxxi. 40. John xviii. 1.), runs in the valley of Jehoshaphat, eastward of Jerusalem, between that city and the mount of Olives; except during the winter, or after heavy rains, its channel is generally dry, but, when swollen by torrents, it flows with great impetuosity, and, like other brooks in cities, it is contaminated with the filth, of which it is the receptacle and Common Sewer. As no mention is made of bridges in Palestine, it is probable that the

1 Shaw's Travels, vol. ii. p 33.

2 Buckingham's Travels, p. 325.

3 In like manner the rivers of Cyprus (which island lies to the north-west of the Holy Land) are dry during the summer months, and are swollen into torrents by sudden rains. Dr. Clarke's Travels, vol. iv. p. 75.

inhabitants forded the rivers and brooks wherever it was practicable, in the same manner as persons of both sexes do to this day in Bengal, which is alluded to, in Isa. xlvii. 2.

Of the LAKES mentioned in the Scriptures, two are particularly worthy of notice; that of Galilee or Gennesareth, and the Lake of Sodom, both of which are termed seas, agreeably to the Hebrew phraseology, which gives the name of sea to any large body of

water.

1. The Sea of Galilee (so called from its situation on the eastern borders of that division of Palestine), through which the Jordan flows, was anciently called the Sea of Chinnereth (Numb. xxxiv. 11.) or Cinneroth (Josh. xii. 3.), from its vicinity to the town of that name; afterwards Genesar (1 Mac. xi. 67.); and in the time of Jesus Christ Genesareth or Gennesareth (Luke v. 1.), from the neighbouring land of the same name (Matt. xiv. 34. Mark vi. 53.); and also the Sent of Tiberias (John vi. 1. xxi. 1.), from the contiguous city of Tiberias. This immense lake, almost equal in the grandeur of its appearance to that of Geneva, spreads its clear waters over all the lower territory, extending from the north-east to the south-west. Its northern coast is said to be entirely covered with basaltes, lava, and other volcanic productions. The waters of the northern part of this lake abound with fish this circumstance marks the propriety of our Lord's parable of the net cast into the sea (Matt. xiii. 47, 48.), which was delivered by him from a vessel near the shore. Pliny states this lake to be sixteen miles in length by six miles in breadth.

Josephus, whose intimate knowledge of his country gives his descriptions a high claim to attention, says that "its breadth is forty furlongs, and its length one hundred and forty. Its waters are sweet and very agreeable for drinking, for they are finer than the thick waters of other fens. The lake is also pure, and on every side ends directly at the shores, and at the sand: it is also of a temperate nature, when drawn up, and softer than river or fountain water, and yet always cooler than one would expect in so diffuse a place as this is. When this water is kept in the open air, it is as cold as that snow which the country people are accustomed to make by night in the summer. There are several kinds of fish in it, different both to the taste and sight from those elsewhere. It is divided into two parts by the river Jordan."3

The fidelity of this description of the Jewish historian is attested by two learned and acute modern travellers. Mr. Buckingham, who beheld it in 1816, observes that "all these features are drawn with an accuracy that could only have been attained by one resident in the country. The size is still nearly the same, the borders of the

1 This appellation is retained by the modern inhabitants, who reside in its vicinity," who, like the earliest ones, call their water a sea, and reckon it and the Dead Sea to the south of them to be the two largest known except the great ocean." Buckingham's Travels, p. 471.

2 Travels of Ali Bey, vol. ii. P. 260.

3 Josephus de Bell. Jud. lib. iii. c. 13. § 7.

lake still end at the beach or the sands, at the feet of the mountains which environ it. Its waters are still as sweet and temperate as ever, and the lake abounds with great numbers of fish of various sizes and kinds. The appearance of the lake as seen from Capernaum," Mr. Buckingham states, "is still grand; its greatest length runs nearly north and south from twelve to fifteen miles; and its breadth seems to be, in general, from six to nine miles. The barren aspects of the mountains on each side and the total absence of wood, give, however, a cast of dulness to the picture; and this is increased to melancholy by the dead calm of its waters and the silence which reigns throughout its whole extent, where not a boat or vessel of any kind is to be found."

Dr. Clarke, by whom this lake was visited a few years before Mr. Buckingham's arrival, describes it as longer and finer than our Cumberland and Westmoreland lakes, although it yields in majesty to the stupendous features of Loch Lomond in Scotland: like our Windermere, the lake of Gennesareth is often greatly agitated by winds. (Matt. viii. 23-27.) A strong current marks the passage of the Jordan through the middle of this lake; and when this is opposed by contrary winds, which blow here with the force of a hurricane from the south-east, sweeping into the lake from the mountains, a boisterous sea is instantly raised: this the small vessels of the country are ill qualified to resist. "The wind," says he, "rendered its surface rough, and called to mind the situation of our Saviour's disciples; when, in one of the small vessels, which traverse these waters, they were tossed in a storm, and saw Jesus in the fourth watch of the night walking to them upon the waves." (Matt. xiv. 24-26.) These agitations, however, do not last for any length of time. Its broad and extended surface, covering the bottom of a profound valley, environed by lofty and precipitous eminences, (excepting only the narrow entrance and outlets of the Jordan at each extremity) added to the impression of a certain reverential awe under which every Christian pilgrim approaches it, give it a character of dignity unparalleled by any similar scenery.2 When not agitated by tempests, the water is stated to be as clear as the purest crystal, sweet, cool, and most refreshing to the taste.

2. The Lake or Sea of Sodom, or the Dead Sea, has been celebrated not only by the sacred writers, but also by Josephus, and several profane authors. It was antiently called in the Scriptures the Sea of the Plain (Deut. iii. 17. iv. 49.), being situated in a valley, with a plain lying to the south of it; the Salt Sea (Deut. iii. 17. Josh. xv. 5.) from the extremely saline, and bitter taste of its waters; the Salt Sea eastward (Numb. xxxiv. 3.) and the East Sea (Ezek. xlvii. 18. Joel ii. 20.), from its situation relatively to Judæa. 1 Buckingham's Travels, pp. 470, 471.

2 Dr. Clarke's Travels, vol. iv. pp. 209, 210. 225. Buckingham's Travels, pp.

468.471.

3 Josephus de Bell. Jud. lib. iv. c. 8. § 4.; Pliny Hist. Nat. lib. v. c. xvi.; Tacitus, Hist. lib. v. c. vi.; Justin. lib. xxxvi. c. iii.; Strabo, lib. xvi. p. 1087, 1088.

edit. Oxon.