bridges--one north of Lake Huleh, the other between that lake and the Sea of Galilee--and by a wooden bridge on the road from Jerusalem to Gilead and Moab. During the Roman period, and almost to the end of the Arab supremacy, there were bridges on all the great lines of communication between eastern and western Palestine, and ferries at other places. The depth of water varies greatly with the season. When not in flood the river is often fordable, and between the Sea of Galilee and the Dead Sea there are then more than fifty fords--some of them of historic interest. The only difficulty is occasioned by the erratic zigzag current. The natural products of the Jordan valley--a tropical oasis sunk in the temperate zone, and overhung by Alpine Hermon--are unique. Papyrus grows in Lake Huleh, and rice and cereals thrive on its shores, whilst below the Sea of Galilee the vegetation is almost tropical. The flora and fauna present a large infusion of Ethiopian types; and the fish, with which the river is abundantly stocked, have a great affinity with those of the rivers and lakes of east Africa. Ere the Jordan enters the Dead Sea, its valley has become very barren and forbidding. It reaches the lake at a minus level of 1290 ft., the depression continuing downwards to twice that depth in the bed of the Dead Sea. It receives two affluents, with perennial waters, on the left, the Yarmuk (Hieromax) which flows in from the volcanic Jaulan a little south of the Sea of Galilee, and the Zerka (Jabbok) which comes from the Belka district to a point more than half-way down the lower course. On the right the Jalud descends from the plain of Esdraelon to near Beisan, and the Far'a from near Nablus. Various salt springs rise in the lower valley. The rest of the tributaries are wadis, dry except after rains. Such human life as may be found in the valley now is mainly migratory. The Samaritan villagers use it in winter as pasture-ground, and, with the Circassians and Arabs of the east bank, cultivate plots here and there. They retire on the approach of summer. Jericho is the only considerable settlement in the lower valley, and it lies some distance west of the stream on the lower slopes of the Judaean heights. See W. F. Lynch, _Narrative of the U.S. Expedition_, &c. (1849); H. B. Tristram, _Land of Israel_ (1865); J. Macgregor, _Rob Roy on the Jordan_ (1870); A. Neubauer, _La Géographie du Talmud_ (1868); E. Robinson, _Physical Geography of the Holy Land_ (1865); E. Hull, _Mount Seir_, &c. (1885), and _Memoir on the Geology of Arabia Petraea_, &c. (1886); G. A. Smith, _Hist. Geography of the Holy Land_ (1894); W. Libbey and F. E. Hoskins, _The Jordan Valley_, &c. (1905). See also PALESTINE. (C. W. W.; D. G. H.)