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The boats provided in America for this service were of metal—one of copper, and the other of galvanized iron. These were mounted on trucks, and drawn by camels from the sea-shore across the country to the Lake of Tiberias. Here the only native boat upon that once populous lake was taken into the service of the party, and the three proceeded together to thread the whole course of the lower Jordan to the Dead Sea.
There was, in fact, an important geographical problem to solve. It had been ascertained that the Dead Sea was more than a thousand feet below the level of the Lake of Tiberias—and as the distance between the two was but sixty miles, this would give a fall of about twenty feet per mile—greater, it was then thought, than any river in the world exhibited. The Mohawk river in America was held to be the one of greatest fall, and that averages not, more than four or five feet to the mile; but it is now known that the Sacramento in California has a fall of two thousand feet in twenty miles, or an average of one hundred feet to a mile. It was then, however, thought that such a fall as it seemed necessary to suppose in the case of the Jordan, from the difference of level between the two lakes which it connected, was without example; and as its course was presumed to be tolerably straight, and as it was not known to contain any rapids, an error in the calculation of the difference of level between the two lakes was more than suspected. This problem it was left for Lieut. Lynch to set at rest. In the first place the river is full of rapids. The boats plunged down no less than twenty-seven very threatening ones, besides a great number of lesser magnitude; and then, although the direct distance does, as stated, not exceed sixty miles, the course of the river is made at least two hundred miles by the exceedingly tortuous course of its stream. This reduces the fall to not more than six feet in the mile, for which the numerous rapids in the river sufficiently account.
The descent by the river occupied no less than a week. So great were the difficulties caused by the rapids, that in two days not more than twelve miles were accomplished; and on the third day the wooden boat brought down from the sea of Galilee was abandoned on account of her shattered condition. None but metal boats could have stood the severe work of this passage. It was, nevertheless, made at the time of flood—at the same season that the Israelites passed the river—and which, although the most unfavorable without boats, should be the most favorable with them. In fact, it is stated, that a few weeks earlier or later the passage down the river in boats would, as in the case of Lieut. Molyneux, have been impracticable, from the want of sufficient water to carry them over the rapids.
The wide and deeply depressed plain or valley (Ghor) through which the river flows is generally barren, treeless, and verdureless; and the mountains, or rather cliffs and slopes, of the river uplands, present, for the most part, a wild and cheerless aspect. We have no generalized description of the river; but the following condensed description, which applies to the central part, may be taken as sufficiently indicating the general character of the whole.
“The mountains towards the west rose up like islands from the sea, with the billows heaving at their bases. Deep rooted in the plain, the bases of the mountains heaved the garment of earth away, and rose abruptly in naked pyramidal crags, each scar and fissure as plainly distinct as if it were within reach, and yet we were hours away; the laminations of their strata resembling the leaves of some gigantic volume, wherein is written, by the hand of God, the history of the changes he has wrought. The plain, that sloped away from
the bases of the hills, was broken into ridges and multitudenous cone-like mounds, resembling tumultuous water at the meeting of two adverse tides; and presented a wild and checkered tract of land, with spots of vegetation flourishing upon the frontiers of irreclaimable sterility. A low, pale and yellow ridge of conical hills marked the termination of the higher terrace, beneath which swept gently this lower plain with a similar undulating surface, half redeemed from barrenness by sparse verdure and thistle-covered hillocks. Still lower was the valley of the Jordan—the sacred river! its banks fringed with perpetual verdure, winding in a thousand graceful mazes; the pathway cheered with songs of birds, and its own clear voice of gushing minstrelsy; its course a bright line in this cheerless waste. Yet, beautiful as it is, it is only rendered so by contrast with the harsh calcined earth around.” Note: Lynch’s Narrative of the Expedition to the Dead Sea and the Jordan, pp. 232, 233.
The waters of the Jordan are described as being clear and transparent, except in the immediate vicinity of the rapids and falls; and numerous fish are seen in its deep and steady course. There is no trace of the lions and bears which once were found in the thickets; but the tracks of a leopard were observed, and several wild boars were noticed.
On approaching the Dead Sea, the mountains on either hand recede, or rather, the cleft which forms the valley of the Jordan widens, having a broad plain traversed by the river—the portion on the west being called “the plain of Jericho,” and that on the east the “plains of Moab.” It was here that the Israelites crossed; and here, probably, that Jesus was baptized of John, when multitudes resorted to his baptism. In that belief, and in the persuasion that the same spot was the scene of both events, a pilgrim host comes yearly from Jerusalem at Easter to bathe in the Jordan. This part of the river has, therefore, been the most visited, and is the best known. The American expedition adds nothing to the information previously possessed respecting this portion of the river. The lofty mountains that bound the valley of the Jordan on both sides, continue to bear the same essential characteristics which have been already indicated. Those to the west are the most precipitous; while the eastern, rising by a more gradual slope, attain to nearly double their elevation. The plain, generally, is bare of vegetation; but about a mile from the river, a meager sprinkling of shrubs begins to appear, giving the plain here much the appearance of the more verdant parts of the Arabian desert. Half a mile further we descend to a lower stage of the plain, into what may be properly regarded as the outermost channel of the river. This is separated from the higher level by a bank of marl or clay, from thirty to forty feet in height, generally precipitous, but cut through in many places by channels, formed perhaps by the passage of the water that falls in the rainy season upon the upper plain. The plain, along the base of this high bank, is covered with mud, but clay predominates towards the river, on approaching to which, one is soon involved in a jungle of luxuriant shrubs and low tangled bushes. The immediate banks of the river are covered with a low luxuriant forest of willows, oleanders, tamarisks, and canes. The highest of the trees do not attain an elevation of more than thirty or forty feet, and few of them are more than five or six inches in diameter. The willow is held in high estimation by the pilgrims, who prefer it for staves, which they dip in the river and preserve as sacred memorials. It is this part of the channel, this lower terrace, covered towards the stream with jungle, which is overflowed with water when the river is in flood. Hence the Scripture alludes to the wild beasts driven from their retreats in the thickets by “the swellings” of the Jordan. Jer_49:19. The inundation does not now, nor is there any probability that it ever did, extend beyond the wooded verge of this lower terrace. Just beyond this narrow fertile tract, the ground rises several feet, and the region extending thence to the high bank, is quite too elevated to allow of the supposition of its being inundated by the overflowing of the river. It exhibits no traces of such inundation; and although the river is usually visited at the season of flood in the spring, no traveller has ever seen the waters extend beyond the narrow verge already described. The language of the text, “Jordan overfloweth all his banks all the time of harvest” (Jos_3:15), does not necessarily imply an inundation of greater extent than this.
In its proper channel, when the bed is full, but not overflowed, the river is in this part from thirty-five to forty yards wide. The stream sweeps along with a rapid turbid current. The water is discolored, and of a clayey hue, not unlike that of the Nile, and although muddy, is pleasant to the taste. It has the appearance of being deep; but we do not know that the depth has been ascertained. Persons entering the stream are soon out of their depth, and are borne rapidly towards the Dead Sea by the current.
It will from these particulars be seen, that although only relatively and historically an important river, the Jordan still satisfies abundantly all the statements made in reference to it by the sacred writers. It still “overfloweth all its banks in harvest;” and a miracle would be no less necessary now than in the days of Joshua, to enable an immense multitude of men, women, and children, and flocks and herds, unprovided with boats, to pass it at that season.