Page:An Introduction to the Survey of Western Palestine.djvu/202

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186
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186

186 THE MOUNTAINS OF UPPER GALILEE.

The latter point is on the northern edge of the Wady Hindaj basin, the limits of which require attention, as they shed a light on features of the range that have been already noticed, as well as upon those that begin here. Beginning at Lake Huleh, the northern edge of the basin runs in a south- westerly direction to a range of hills that forms a prolongation of the original line of the eastern range. The boundary runs northward along this range to the south-eastern corner of the Kades plateau, where it turns westward along the southern edge of the plateau to Deir el Ghabieh. From this point the waterparting of the Mediterranean and Jordan and of this basin makes a further departure westward, as far as Jebel Marun (alt. 3,050 feet) ; while the Eastern Eange appears to cross the basin, from the same point southward, in the direction of Delata (alt. 2,740 feet). A large basaltic dyke observed by Dr. Tristram between Delata and Alma falls in the line of the range. A large patch of basalt farther north seems to be Jebel Gabieh in the same line. Perhaps the smaller dyke to the eastward is the ridge dividing the plateau of el Malkiyeh from the Merj Kades.* At Jebel Marun the waterparting bends abruptly to the south-south-west as far as a point on the range south-east of Jebel Adather (alt. 3,300 feet). There it turns south-east to Jebel Jurmuk (alt. 3,934 feet), the highest point in Galilee; then it goes off on a general course to the north-east as far as Alma, where the Eastern Eange crosses the basin and makes the waterparting deflect to the south-east in descending to the base of the range in the Ard el Kheit and the Huleh Lake. The wady also descends the range by a rocky and precipitous chasm, in a parallel direction to the waterparting ; but on reaching the plain, the stream bends suddenly to the eastward with a little northing, and so crosses the Ard el Kheit to Lake Huleh.

The elevated part of the Hindaj basin extends so far west as to intercept the heads of Wady Selukieh running north to the Kasimiyeh, and of Wady 'Amud running south by Safed to the Sea of Galilee. The 'Amud, the Upper

  • Tristram'e " Land of Israel," 577.