"When the last of the procession had passed, Joshua called to the priests to bring the ark from the bed of the river, and they did so. The waters at once resumed their course, and the Jordan flowed on as before. Of course the monuments of stones which were erected by the Israelites to commemorate their crossing disappeared hundreds of years ago, and we have only the geographical localities to guide us; but, as we heard the description of the event, and looked around us, we felt certain that the spot where the Israelites crossed over Jordan, after their escape from Egypt, and their wanderings in the wilderness, could not be far away.
"Before we go on to Jericho let me say something about the famous river we have just visited.
"The Jordan is about a hundred miles long in a direct line, but its course is so crooked that the actual length of the stream is a great deal more; nobody has ever measured it accurately, and therefore I can't say how much it winds about. One authority says it is sixty-four miles in a direct line from the Dead Sea to the Lake of Tiberias, and two hundred miles by the windings of the river. The head-spring of the Hasbany (the parent of the Jordan) is seventeen hundred feet above the level of the Mediterranean; the mouth of the Jordan, where it enters the Dead Sea, is, therefore, about three thousand feet lower than its source, so the Jordan has a great fall for so short a river.
"The Hasbany and several other streams unite in the Lake of Hooleh, and from the outlet of that lake the river is called the Jordan. It has a rapid fall to the Lake of Tiberias; and as it goes out of that lake it begins its tortuous course, which can be surpassed by very few rivers in the world. Between the Lake of Tiberias and the Dead Sea there are twenty-seven cascades or rapids; all of them are so great that it is quite impossible for boats to make the ascent, and it is not by any means safe to attempt to descend them. Lieutenant Lynch started with three boats, one of wood and the others of iron. The wooden boat was bought in the Lake of Tiberias, while the iron ones were brought from the United States. The iron boats were a good deal battered by the thumps they received during the voyage, but the exploring party brought them to the Dead Sea, and used them for completing their work. The wooden boat was ruined, and abandoned before half the journey had been accomplished.
"The Valley of the Jordan is called the 'Ghor' by the natives. The word means a depression or hollow, and the valley may be regarded as a plain sixty miles long, and from five to ten miles wide, enclosed by mountains. The mountains on both sides are very steep, and the Valley of the Jordan is not unlike some of the deep gorges or ravines in our Western States and Territories. It is broader near the Dead Sea than farther up. The land is generally fertile, and capable of supporting a larger population than it contains at present. According to the accounts in the Old Testament, it was far more productive in ancient times than it is to-day. It contains ruins of cities that once were populous, and it is very certain that the land of Canaan has greatly diminished in importance since the children of Israel came to it and settled.
"There were then as now wandering tribes of shepherds, and their customs have changed very little in all the centuries that have passed; but there were more people living in settled places, and the biblical story shows that Jericho was a walled town with gates, which were shut at night. The flax drying on the roof of Rahab's house shows that that plant was cultivated, and the cord by which she let down the spies tells us very plainly that the people understood the art of spinning. We read the Bible very carefully while in the Jordan Valley, and have derived a great many useful hints from it, and much information.
"We wished we could have been here at the time of the annual visit of the pilgrims, which occurs at Easter, and is a curious sight. There are pilgrims here in fair numbers through the whole year, and they all consider it a religious duty to bathe in the Jordan. The great festival is in April, and at that time several thousand pilgrims leave Jerusalem immediately after the close of the Easter festivities and come down to the Plain of Jericho, where they encamp for the night. They come from all parts of Europe, and there is a good representation from Asia as well. You can see many varieties of costume, and hear a jargon of languages that might remind you of the Tower of Babel.