increased), through a series of gorges and glens, to the point where the
roots of the Antilibanus sink down upon the plain, when it bursts forth
from the mountains and scatters. Channels are drawn from it on either
side, and its waters are spread far and wide over the Merj, which it
covers with fine trees and splendid herbage.

One branch passes right through the city, cutting it in half. Others
irrigate the gardens and orchards both to the north and to the south.
Beyond the town the tendency to division still continues. The river,
weakened greatly through the irrigation, separates into three main
channels, which flow with divergent courses towards the east, and
terminate in two large swamps or lakes, the Bahret-esh-Shurkiyeh and the
Bahret-el-Kibli-yeh, at a distance of sixteen or seventeen miles from
the city. The Barada is a short stream, its entire course from the plain
of Zebdany not much exceeding forty miles.

The Jordan is commonly regarded as flowing from two sources in the
Huleh or plain immediately above Lake Merom, one at Banias (the ancient
Paneas), the other at Tel-el-Kady, which marks the site of Laish or
Dan. But the true highest present source of the river is the spring near
Hasbeiya, called Nebaes-Hasbany, or Eas-en-Neba. This spring rises in
the torrent-course known as the Wady-el-Teim, which descends from the
north-western flank of Hermon, and runs nearly parallel with the great
gorge of the Litany, having a direction from north-east to south-west.
The water wells forth in abundance from the foot of a volcanic
bluff, called Eas-el-Anjah, lying directly north of Hasbeiya, and is
immediately used to turn a mill. The course of the streamlet is very
slightly west of south down the Wady to the Huleh plain, where it
is joined, and multiplied sevenfold, by the streams from Banais and
Tel-el-Kady, becoming at once worthy of the name of river. Hence it