But, since the waters have been lowered, these
deposits have been cut down to great depths, and are still being
excavated by the present temporary, or permanent, streams.
Hence, it follows, that all these ravines must have existed
before the time at which the valley was occupied by the great
mere. This fact acquires a peculiar importance when we proceed
to consider the grounds for the conclusion that the old
Palestinian mere attained its highest level in the cold period
of the pleistocene epoch. It is well known that glaciers
formerly came low down on the flanks of Lebanon and Antilebanon;
indeed, the old moraines are the haunts of the few survivors of
the famous cedars. This implies a perennial snowcap of great
extent on Hermon; therefore, a vastly greater supply of water to
the sources of the Jordan which rise on its flanks; and, in
addition, such a total change in the general climate, that the
innumerable Wadys, now traversed only by occasional storm
torrents, must have been occupied by perennial streams. All this
involves a lower annual temperature and a moist and rainy
atmosphere. If such a change of meteorological conditions could
be effected now, when the loss by evaporation from the surface
of the Dead Sea salt-pan balances all the gain from the Jordan
and other streams, the scale would be turned in the other
direction. The waters of the Dead Sea would become diluted;
its level would rise; it would cover, first the plain of the
Jordan, then the lake of Galilee, then the middle Jordan between
this lake and that of Huleh (the ancient Merom); and, finally,
it would encroach, northwards, along the course of the upper
Jordan, and, southwards, up the Wady Arabah, until it reached
some 260 feet above the level of the Mediterranean, when it
would attain a permanent level, by sending any superfluity
through the pass of Jezrael to swell the waters of the Kishon,
and flow thence into the Mediterranean.
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