Page:An Introduction to the Survey of Western Palestine.djvu/226

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210 THE MOUNTAINS OF LOWER GALILEE.

cover the whole region between Mount Tabor and the Galilean Sea. But the exactitude of the Survey makes it usually very difficult to apply the geological notes of former observers to it ; as- their representations of the ground seldom embrace the details which are now delineated, and their allusions are too general for precise use. Dr. Tristram's geological account of this part is remarkably distinct, but it would be rather presumptuous to attempt to colour the one- inch survey from that or any other existing description.* Professor Geikie's recent theory of the emission of lava from dykes as well as craters, could probably be studied under favourable circumstances around the Sea of Galilee.

The Jebel Duhy Range.

The southernmost group of the Hills of Lower Galilee is an irregular quadrilateral, which would be wholly confined to the basin of the Jordan, but for the north-western slope of Jebel Duhy or Little Hermon, which is within the basin of the Mukutt'a. The entire group has two faces towards the north, of which one is slightly inclined to the north-west, and has its base in the great arm of the Plain of Esdraelon, that stretches up between Jebel Duhy and Mount Tabor, as far as the end of the plain, and the head of the gorge of Wady el Bireh. The other northerly face is slightly inclined to the north-east, and descends in a deep valley to the Wady el Bireh. The third face is towards the Jordan and drops steeply to the Ghor of Jordan between Wady el Bireh and Nahr el Jalud. The fourth face inclines south-westward along the wide, sloping vale of Wady el Jalud or the Valley of Jezreel, between Beisan and Jebel Duhy. The length of the mountain on this line is about 15 miles. Its greatest breadth is about seven miles.

This block is distinctly divided into three parts. (1) The triangular or trihedral mass of Jebel Duhy occupies the western extremity and rises to the height of 1,690 feet. Its

  • Tristram's " Land of Israel," 422. Lartet, " Exploration Geologique,"

188.