The Vancouver independent. (Vancouver, W.T. [Wash.]) 1875-1910, 1877-08-02
Beyond the Jordan.


Mr.. Selah Merrill, of the American Elk
ploration in Palestine, sends from Beirut.
Way 10, to the London Athencum, q very
interesting description of the country of
Gilead, beyond the Jordan-a region
hitherto only little known. The fol-
lowing are the most important portions
of his account:
The better acquainted become with
the country east of the Jordan, the more
l Lam amazed at its fertility and natural
resources. The scenery everywhere
among the Gilead hills is picturesque and
beautiful. The forests and cultivated
fields, the green valleys and grassy
slopes, remind one of the park scenery
of England. The hills in many parts are
we'll wooded, but besides this there are also
dense forests of large fine old trees, such
as are not elsewhere seen in this peeled
and poverty-stricken land. The upper
portion of Wady Yabis is called eel
Akhdar"-i. e., the greenland its gar
dens and orchards, as we'll as its fields
of grass, combine to render it a charming
place. But Wady Ajlun surpasses the
Yabis in respect to cultivation and
beauty, because it is larger,and the foun-
tains which feed its copious stream are
at a much higher level in the mountains.
Ain Jenmeh is near the head Of this
wady, and the fountains and streams
flowing among the olive trees and walnut
groves there make this one of the most
delightful valleys in Syria.
AT one place on this wady saw an
orchard of unusual extent, in which there
were at least eight kinds of fruit trees
the fig, olive, apricot, ounce, plum,
lemon, apple, and the pOmegranate grow
ing side by side. The valley is full of
mills, four-mills, of which I counted
about twenty, but not all of them were
in working order; and not only on this
but on many other streams as we'll, the
number of ruined mills surprises one.
For instance, on the line of the Zerka, or
Jabbok, counted between twenty and
thirty ruined four-mills, besides very
few that were in operation.
AS yet have only referred to the re-
gion of Jebel Alum, of the mountains of
Gilead. But the great plateau which
stretches eastward from the lake of IT.
berias to the Lejah, and south to ORA
(Edrei) and Gerash, is one vast natural
wheat field. Some portions of this pla-
teau are rocky, but these furnish excel
lent pasture; the soil, however, is for the
most part tolerably free from stones,
and the plowman has no excuse for turn
ing crooked furrow. Those who are
familiar only with the country west of
the Jordan will perhaps hardly believe
ma yuhn I tot hat
plains have seen in the plowed fields
burrows a mile and mile and half in
continuous length, and as straight as one
could draw line.
In searching for Biblical sites l have
followed up the whole line of the Zerka
from its mouth to its source, and find
the valley pretty extensively cultivated.
1t being sixty five or seventy miles in
length its capacities are great, because
the supply of water is abundant, and
every acre could be reached by irrigating
canals. There are already multitude
of farms in this valley, and the wheat
crop this year is good. With regard to
the canals just referred to, the present
cultivators of the land say that they dig
no new ones, and the Arabs say that
those which exist now have always
existed there. There are on the hillsides
many unused canals, few of which can
be traced to a distance of five or ten
miles. These remains show that in an
cient times there was perfect system
of irrigation, by which not only the bot
tom land was brought under cultivation,
but in some cases even the foothills
themselves. When the present farmers
want to utilize new piece of ground, all
they have to do is to clear out and re-
pair one of these old canals. Some of
these canals exhibit such skillful engi.
neering that often wondered how the
people of to-day, whether Arabs or fella-
hin, could have built them, until they
assured me repeatedly that neither they
nor their fathers had anything to do with
their construction.
l have examined the Jordan valley
throughout its whole extent, with special
reference to its being irrigated from the
jordan itself; and I am convinced that
the project 10 very feasible. Every
square mile not now irrigated could be
watered from the Jordan, and the ex-
pense for dam and canals would be
small compared with the large number
of square miles of valuable land that
would thus be made productive. If we
reckon the valley at sixty miles in length
and from two or three to six miles in
width. we should have $50 square miles
of land as fertile a. any prairie, and
which, at twenty or twenty five bushels
v,or oceo vyou11 vHeoduno fntwoon q mn