=Water Supply and Fertility of the Plain of Esdraelon.= Originally the Plain of Esdraelon appears to have been a shallow inland lake. Viewed from the top of Mount Gilboa it appears to be completely shut in by a circle of mountains on the north, west, and south.^{(11)} Its elevation toward the east is so slight and its outlets to the east and west so imperfect that during the rainy season much of it is practically a morass. Into it drain the waters from the surrounding hills. Some of the drainage is on the surface, but most of it is underground, with the result that at many points on the plain rushing springs pour forth their waters, which run for a time as a dashing brook and then sink again into the porous soil. Springs of this character are found especially on the northeastern and southern sides of the plain. Some of them ultimately send their scattered waters down the Plain of Jezreel to the Jordan, but more of them find their outlet through the low, muddy Kishon, which, with many turnings, ploughs its way through the middle of the Plain of Esdraelon to the shadow of Mount Carmel and then finds a narrow outlet into the Mediterranean past the Galilean foot-hills, which here are scarcely one hundred yards from the spurs of Mount Carmel. As a result of its peculiar position and formation, the Plain of Esdraelon is one of the best watered areas in all Palestine. In certain places, indeed, it suffers from an excess of water. Its loamy, basaltic soil is also richly fertile and its alluvial deposits are free from stone. By nature it is fitted to be the great grain field of central Palestine. The hills that jut out into this garden land were naturally the first centres of a developed agricultural civilization. Here on the southern border are found the large mounds which were once the sites of teeming Canaanite cities.