'The Expedition for the survey of the rivers Euphrates and Tigris, carried on by order of the British government, in the years 1835, 1836, and 1837; preceded by geographical and historical notices of the regions situated between the rivers Nile and Indus. In four volumes. With fourteen maps and charts, and embellished with ninety-seven plates, besides numerous wood-cuts. Volume the first.' [‎398] (477/905)

398
THE LEONTES.
[CHAP. XVII.
the following month, the river is at the highest; it then falls
till November. At times, the floodings are sudden and con
siderable ; but, in general, owing to the basins formed by the
lakes and marshes on the southern, as well as the northern
branch, the changes are gradual and regular throughout the
year.
Course of the The next stream to be noticed is the Nahr-el-Litani, or Le-
Leoutes to the 0Iltegj sourC e is in the same valley, at no great distance
from those of the Southern Orontes, but it takes an opposite di
rection. At a spot scarcely 6 miles S.W. of Baalbec it issues
from a small lake near Tel Hushben, 1 and from thence it
flows southward along the centre of the fertile valley of the
Bika, receiving from the slopes of the Lebanon and Anti-
Lebanon many streams, the largest of which comes into it
from Jebel Sanin, a part of the former range. In its subse
quent course the Litani passes a few miles eastward of Zahle,
and then proceeds south-westward to join Temir, where it
sweeps to the S.E., and after a time again south-westward,
through the narrow and fertile valley lying between Jebel
Drus on the one side, and the Jebel Arbel, or the westernmost
spur of Jebel-ish-Sheikh, on the other. Towards the extremity
of the latter, and near the southern extremity of Wadi A seasonal or intermittent watercourse, or the valley in which it flows. Bika, in
about 33° 27' N. lat., the river, now bearing the name of the
Nahr-el-Kasimiyeh, makes a bold sweep to the west, and
forces its way through the Lebanon Chain, passing in the
first instance along a wild precipitous gorge, 2 over which
there is a wooden bridge of one arch (Jisr Bughu), just op
posite to Kalat ish-Shukif. Here the river has a width equal
to about one-third of that of the Jordan above Tabanyeh,
with a considerable depth; and having traversed the Lebanon
range it flows for a time to the south-west; it then turns to the
west with many windings, and ultimately passes through a
broad tract of meadow-land and cotton plantations into the
sea, at a point nearly 5 miles north of Tyre. 3
slope of the That the slope of the country itself is now towards the
country. ^
1 Burckhardt's Travels in Syria, &c., p. 10. John Murray, 1822.
2 Biblical Researches in Palestine, &c., by Edward Robinson, D.D., pn.
344, 345. s Ibid 5 p! 409>