The Jordan flows into its upper end turbid and muddy, and issues forth at its southern extremity clear and pellucid.

It receives also the waters of a considerable number of small streams and springs, some of which are warm and brackish; yet its own water is always sweet, cool, and transparent, and, having everywhere a shelving pebbly beach, has a bright sparkling appearance.

The banks are lofty, and in general destitute of verdure.

What exactly is the amount of depression below the level of the Mediterranean remains still, to some extent, uncertain; but it is probably not much less than 700 feet.

Now, as formerly, the lake produces an abundance of fish, which are pronounced, by those who have partaken of them, to be "delicious." Nine miles above the Sea of Tiberias, on the course of the same stream, is the far smaller basin known now as the Bahr-el Huleh, and anciently (perhaps) as Merom.