THE WATERS OF GALILEE.

GALILEE was a well-watered country. The words of promise spoken to the Hebrews in regard to the land which they were to enter, 'a land of brooks of water, of fountains, and depths that spring out of valleys and hills¹,' would be truer of Galilee than of any other section. The lakes of this province, with their blue, transparent waters, contribute not a little to the charming beauty of the landscapes. The water of Lake Merom is sweet, as is also that of Lake Tiberias, and crystal clear. The Rabbis find it difficult to praise enough their beautiful lake, which was justly the pride of their whole land. They speak, in a phrase already quoted, of its 'gracefully flowing' or 'gliding waters.' Jehovah, they said, had created seven seas, and of these He had chosen the Sea of Gennesareth as His special delight. The names of these seas are given as the Great Sea, or the Mediterranean; the Sea of Tiberias, which was also known to them as Genusar; the Sea of Samecho, known in Josephus as Semechonitis; the Salt Sea, or the Sea of Sodom; the Sea of Hultha; the Sea of Shelhath, or Sheliyath; and the Sea of Apamia.

In the view of the Christian, in a far higher sense than was thought of by the Rabbis, God has indeed chosen the Sea of Galilee, and blessed it beyond all other seas of the earth.

The Jordan, the only stream in Palestine deserving the name of 'river,' with its 'sources,' its 'floods' and its remarkably winding course, belonged, at least in its upper and finer half, to Galilee. Perhaps the Litany, where it bends from a southerly to a westerly course, touched upon the northern frontier of this province. Here belonged the Kishon, the famous 'river of battle,' called in the song of Deborah and Barak 'that ancient river.' It took its rise near the foot of Tabor, went in a winding course across the plain of Esdraelon, and entered the Bay of Acre, near the foot of Carmel. A principal feeder of this stream came from Gilboa and Engannim. It received ' the waters of Megiddo,' not far from the town of the same name. When the Kishon was at its height, it would be, partly on account of its quicksands, as impassable as the ocean itself to a retreating army. The river Belus should also be mentioned, which entered the sea near Acre, and from the fine sand of whose bed the Phoenicians, according to tradition, first made glass. The present name of the stream with which so important a fact is connected, is Nahr N'aman; but we are not so certain as to what name it bore in the early Hebrew history. In Josh. xix. 26 we find a Shihor Libnath mentioned, which has been thought to be identical with the river Belus of Josephus and Pliny. But this is doubted by so eminent a scholar as Mr. George Grove, who even thinks that the Hebrew words do not refer to any river.

'No less than four springs pour forth their almost full-grown rivers through the plain' of Gennesareth. ' Beautiful springs, characteristic of the whole valley of the Jordan, are unusually numerous and copious along the western shore of the lake².' Half-an-hour north of the town of Tiberias are five or six profuse springs lying near together and called the 'cool fountains,' to distinguish them from the hot ones south of the city. Ritter speaks of 'the hundred brooks' that distribute their waters through the neighbourhood of Banias. ' carrying fertility everywhere.' Thomson speaks of 'the ample supply of water about Ayun.' Six streams have been counted flowing into Lake Huleh from the mountains lying west of it, — the largest of which streams is from forty to fifty feet wide. The abundance of dew which falls about Tabor, remarked by Burckhardt, Robinson, and others, was of the utmost importance to vegetation in that immediate neighbourhood. The 'dew of Hermon' was long ago praised³, and the rich vegetation of the surrounding region is largely due to this fructifying influence. The perpetual snow on Hermon proved no doubt an unspeakable blessing to the people of this province, freshening the atmosphere by day and cooling it by night. The snow was even carried to Tyre, Sidon, and Damascus as a luxury, and labourers sweltering in the hot harvest fields used it to cool the water which they drank⁴. No doubt Herod Antipas at his feasts in Tiberias enjoyed also from this very source the modern luxury of ice-water! Not only were ice and snow from the mountains used for the purpose now indicated, but the inhabitants of this city had still another method of making warm water cool and delightful. This method was in use throughout the Jordan valley, and especially in Jericho, where the heat was intense. Water from the fountain, lake, or stream was put into earthen jars, which were of a great variety of sizes according to the needs of families or individuals, and these were exposed to the air, generally in a sheltered place, and where a draught was felt. In this manner it became extremely cold even in the hottest weather, and was regarded as one of the greatest comforts of life. In ministering to the sick, and in entertaining weary travellers, 'a cup of cold water ' was not only refreshing, it was more highly prized than a bag of gold.

The warm springs of this province are also to be noticed: at Biram, Gadara, and Tiberias, of which those at the last place were perhaps the most renowned. ' These three springs' the Rabbis say, 'remained after the Deluge' The exact location of Biram is not known, nor do the limits of this work permit us to describe the remarkable springs at Gadara. There is a large cluster of them near Tiberias. Some of these are hot, and are called by the Rabbis 'the boiling waters.' The supply of water in the largest is sufficient to turn the wheels of mills. Pliny, referring to these springs, uses the expression, 'which are so conducive to the restoration of health,' as though their medicinal qualities were widely known. Josephus reports that when he was governor of Galilee, his enemy, John of Gischala, asked him for 'permission to come down and use the hot baths of Tiberias for the benefit of his health.' The permission was granted, although John really desired it as an opportunity of carrying out his schemes of political intrigue. We find a case where a certain famous Rabbi, Joshua Ben Levi, being sick, bathed in these warm springs, supporting himself meantime on the arm of a friend. These springs were indeed one of the 'watering-places' of that age and country, the delightful resort of people of means, and were visited also with great benefit by the feeble or sick of the land, on account of the healing properties of the waters. People were attracted hither from Jerusalem and all other parts of the land; and no doubt the city of Tiberias was by this means greatly increased both in size and importance.

If, in a word, we think of the numberless brooks and mountain torrents, the springs, besides the warm ones already mentioned, the reservoirs, the aqueducts and watercourses, remains of which exist about the Plain of Gennesareth and elsewhere, the fountains, the cisterns, and the wells, we have a land in which there was no lack of water, and one surprisingly favoured in this respect above Judaea.

1) Deut. viii. 7.

2) Stanley, Sinai and Palestine, p. 366.

3) Ps. cxxxiii. 3.

4) Prov. xxv. 13; Jer. xviii. 14.