The Jordan proper is the stream connecting the Sea of Galilee and the Dead Sea. These seas are only sixty-five miles apart; but the river, as if reluctant to enter that bitter Sea of Death, winds and twists so like a serpent that the water, in going from one sea to the other, flows two hundred miles, and empties at last into the Dead Sea, 1,300 feet below the Mediterranean!
The Jordan has three sets of banks, which are marked with more or less distinctness according as the hills approach near to, or recede from, the river. Ordinarily, of course, the stream is confined within the lower banks. But during the annual rise the water over-flows these lower banks, and spreads out over the valley between the second terraces, or banks. No important tributaries are received from the west; but the Hieromax and the Jabbok, each a small river, empty into the Jordan from the east. The river is crossed by four well-known fords; one just below the Sea of Galilee, another just above the mouth of the Jabbok. The third and fourth are respectively above and below the pilgrim’s bathing-place, which is about two and a half miles north of the Dead Sea. No bridge spans the river at present, but the remains of old Roman bridges may still be seen at some of the fords.
In some places, the channel of the river is shut in by rock banks, steep and precipitous. At others, the banks are of sand, or rich earth, and rise only a few feet above the surface of the water. Sometimes one bank is a bold rock cliff, rising abruptly, while the other slopes gently up from the river, and stretches out to join the fertile plain.
Since the Jordan has its source in a fountain bursting out of a mountain side 2,200 feet above the Mediterranean, and since it empties into the Dead Sea 1,300 feet below the Mediterranean, a great many people falsely conclude that the river must, of necessity, be very swift. I grant that this seems a strong argument. Think of a river 136 miles long having a fall of 3,500 feet! The natural supposition is that such a stream would be exceedingly swift. But not so. The facts will not bear out the supposition. To be swift, a stream must have not only a great fall, but it must have, also, a comparatively straight channel. The Jordan is probably the most crooked river on earth. In a space of sixty-five miles of latitude, and five or six miles of longitude, it traverses at least two hundred miles. In some places, to be sure, the current is swift, as there are thirty or more falls, or rapids, in the Jordan. Some of these are quite marked, while others are less so. While near these falls, the stream is swift. In other places the water is deep, and moves sluggishly.
In speaking of the velocity of the water, it might be well to mention that a few years ago Lieut. Lynch, under appointment of the United States government, navigated the river from one end to the other. He met with many difficulties and some dangers. Shooting the rapids was perilous work. One of his boats was dashed against the rocks and went to pieces. Lieut. Lynch’s official report to the United States Navy department is the fullest, most accurate, and reliable description of the Jordan that has ever been published in this country.
Again. Inasmuch as the Jordan rises in the mountains, and is constantly fed by the melting snows of Hermon, some philosophical students have argued that the water must necessarily be very cold at all times. But a few facts are worth a cartload of theories. And, as a matter of fact, the water of the Jordan is not cold, except during the winter season; and even then the temperature is by no means low. I bathed in the Jordan repeatedly; once as late as the Fifteenth of December, and the water was even then of a delightful temperature for bathing.
The river valley is so deeply depressed that scarcely a breath of air is felt during the hot season. On this point, Dr. Geikie says: “The heat of the Jordan plains is very great in summer, and oppressive even in spring; while in autumn it becomes very unhealthy for strangers. In May, the thermometer ranges from about 86 degrees in the early forenoon to over 100 degrees in the beginning of the afternoon, standing, even in the shade, at over 90 degrees.” The annual mean temperature of the lower Jordan valley is between 70 and 75 degrees Fahrenheit. From the above facts, the reader will readily see that it is quite impossible for a stream flowing through this valley ever to reach a very low temperature.
