f Coele-Syria, but separated from it
by a range of hills, there opens out on the western slopes of Hermon a
valley unlike any other in the world. At this point the surface of the
earth has been rent in prehistoric times by volcanic action, leaving a
chasm which has never since closed up. A river, unique in character--the
Jordan--flows down this gigantic crevasse, fertilizing the valley formed
by it from end to end.***

* The Adonis of classical authors is now Nahr-Ibrahim. We
have as yet no direct evidence as to the Phoenician name of
this river; it was probably identical with that of the
divinity worshipped on its banks. The fact of a river
bearing the name of a god is not surprising: the Belos, in
the neighbourhood of Acre, affords us a parallel case to the
Adonis.

** The present Nahr el-Kelb is the Lykos of classical
authors. The Due de Luynes thought he recognized a
corruption of the Phoenician name in that of Alcobile, which
is mentioned hereabouts in the Itinerary of the pilgrim of
Bordeaux. The order of the Itinerary does not favour this
identification, and Alcobile is probably Jebail: it is none
the less probable that the original name of the Nahr el Kelb
contained from earliest times the Phoenician equivalent of
the Arab word _kelb_, "dog."

*** The Jordan is mentioned in the Egyptian texts under the
name of Yorduna: the name appears to mean _the descender,
the down-flowing._

Its principal source is at Tell el-Qadi, where it rises out of a
basaltic mound whose summit is crowned by the ruins of Laish.*

* This source is mentioned by Josephus as being that of the
Little Jordan.

[Illustration: 014.jpg THE MOST NORTHERN SOURCE OF THE JORDAN, THE
NAIIR-EL-HASBANY]

Drawn by Boudier, from a photograph by the Duc de Luynes.

The water collects in an oval rocky basin hidden by bushes, and flows
down among the brushwood to join the Nahr el-Hasbany, which brings the
waters of the upper torrents to swell its stream; a little lower down it
mingles with the Banias branch, and winds for some time amidst desolate
marshy meadows before disappearing in the thick beds of rushes bordering
Lake Huleh.*

* Lake Huleh is called the Waters of Merom, Me-Merom, in the
Book of Joshua, xi. 5, 7; and Lake Sammochonitis in
Josephus. The name of Ulatha, which was given to the
surrounding country,