'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.' [‎397] (476/905)

CHAP. XVII.] COURSE OF THE ORONTES.
397
lik. Two men are employed in fishing: one of them poles
the canoe to a suitable spot, such as the fall of water under
the bridge of Murad Pasha An Ottoman title used after the names of certain provincial governors, high-ranking officials and military commanders. , and the other, by drawing along
the bottom a hook attached to a piece of bamboo, takes the
fish either by the head or some other part of the body.
The Lower Kara Su issues from the south-western extre- The Orontes
mity of the lake, and flows through the pasture-grounds with of Antioch? a7
a gentle current for about five miles into the Orontes above
Guzel Burj (pretty town) ; this small village is a boat-station,
and, as it were, the port of the lake. Six miles below the
junction of the northern and southern branches, the trunk of
the Orontes forces its way through numerous fish-weirs, and
winds among the myrtle-clad hills of Antioch; from whence
it flows onward, skirting the richly-picturesque slopes of
Daphne. It afterwards makes a tortuous course to the S.W.
between steep and wooded hills; its fall here is considerable, and
its bed is, in several places, obstructed by rocks. In approaching
the sea it receives from the hills around Jebel Sim an, first the
Kuchuk Kara Chai, and then the Buyuk Kara Chai, a consider
able mountain-stream, whose bed and banks are adorned with
the oleander, the arbutus, and other shrubs. Having forced
its way through the striking scenery presented at every turn by
the rocky slopes at the foot of the hills of St. Simon, the
main stream enters the plain of Suweidiyeh, through which
it winds along the foot of Mount Casius till it passes over a
difficult bar into the spacious bay of Antioch.
The distance by land from the shore to the city is only
13|- miles, whilst, by the windings of the river, it is 21 miles,
with a fall of 300 feet. If a path were made for horses, and
the fish-weirs with some rocks were removed, the river would
be navigable for track-boats as far as, and even beyond the
capital.
The flooding of the Orontes depends almost entirely upon its floods,
the rains which commence towards the beginning of the
month of November; from which time, till the snow falls
in the early part of January, there is a gradual and tolerably
regular increase; the river afterwards diminishes till a change'
is caused by the melting of the snow in April; in which, and