death-like solitude can be looked for upon its shores. Some pieces of driftwood, saturated and bleached with its briny waters, were lying on the margin, fragments which had floated into it from the Jordan, and had been left ashore by the subsidence of the sea, as it rises higher at some periods than at others. There was a great calmn resting upon it, and the waters seemed to slumber most heavily. There was no ebb or flow to disturb the profound silence. On a subsequent visit, indeed, I saw the surface in motion, agitated by the wind; but still with a heavy, leaden undulation. Intent on bathing in this mysterious lake, I found the water so buoyant that I could float with the greatest ease. I had to wade a considerable distance from the shore before I could plunge. The water appears quite clear where it is deep, though in some of the shallow places it is discoloured.* My face was a little smeared with small particles of fine white salt: but, though I bathed twice, on neither occasion was my skin affected with so much irritation as some travellers have complained of. The taste of the water I found as unpleasant to the palate as Epsom salts. The Sea lies between high and dreary mountains on its eastern and western sides, the eastern being the bolder of the two; while its northern boundary is quite open to the plain of the Jordan. Seen from this direction, it appears broad and extensive. The weather was very favourable. All was clear; there was no vapour overhanging. The western mountains do not come close to the shore, nor do they equal in grandeur those on the eastern side. Crossing the plain, and while distant about two or three miles from the shore, I found the ground covered with salt somewhat like hoar frost. Most remarkable it is, that so much salt should be held in solution, while the Jordan is continually pouring such a volume of fresh water into this sea, at the rate, it is said, of six millions of tons per day,—not to speak of the abundance of rain which it receives, at certain seasons, from the clouds. Another extraordinary feature is, that it has no visible outlet whatever. The evaporation from its surface must, therefore, be immense; which accounts for the dense mists that are frequently seen upon it. Apart from its awful connexion with Scripture history, the Dead Sea, if regarded merely in a scientific point of view, is of singular interest, and, certainly, one of the most marvellous of inland seas. Thirteen hundred feet below the level of the Mediterranean, it is the most depressed sheet of water in the world; as Lake Sirikol, where the Oxus rises, is the most elevated.† * Dr. Robinson says, "The water has a slightly greenish hue, and is not entirely transparent; but objects seen through it appear as if seen through oil. It is most intensely and intolerably salt." Some of the water has been examined through a powerful microscope; and no animalcula, no vestiges of animal matter, could be detected. + Lake Sirikol is 15,600 feet above the level of the sea, (that is, nearly as high as Mont Blanc,)—a sheet of water, fourteen miles long and one mile broad, on the high table-land of central Asia; called by the natives Bam-i-duniah, "the roof of the world:" "-a name not unfitly applied to the water-shed of the Indus and the Oxus. The basin of the Dead Sea is a steaming caldron,—a bowl, as it has been well described, which, from the peculiar temperature, and the deep cavity in which it is situated, can never be filled to overflowing. The Jordan, itself exposed to the same influences, is not copious enough to furnish a supply equal to the demand made by the evaporation. The excessive saltness of the Dead Sea is even more remarkable than its deep depression: a peculiarity which has been traced to the huge barrier of fossil salt at its south-western corner. On the southern shore, moreover, is a large ridge of solid rock-salt, varying from a hundred to a hundred and fifty feet in height. Large masses, broken off from above, lie like rocks along the shore. The very path is of salt. This is the character of the entire range,—a distance of five geographical miles. The shore at the end of the lake, which is termed the Ghor, presents a large tract of low naked flats, in some parts a mere salt-marsh, extending for several miles, over which the sea flows at full tide. The breadth of the sea at Ain Jidy, (Engedi,) which is nearly the middle point of the western coast, is about nine geographical miles; and the whole length exceeds thirty-eight geographical miles. The length appears to vary not less than two or three miles in different years, or different seasons of the year, according as the water spreads more or less over the flats to the south. The buoyancy of the water is occasioned by its great specific gravity, arising from the heavy solution of various salts, chiefly those of magnesia and soda. The weight and proportions of this solution (and, of course, the specific gravity) would seem to vary somewhat in different parts of the sea, and at different seasons of the year. A portion of water taken from near the mouth of the Jordan might be expected to be less strongly saturated than another from the vicinity of Ain Jidy; and during the winter season, when the sea is filled by the rains, and its level raised several feet, its waters are naturally more diluted than in autuma, when they have been for months subjected to the process of evaporation under a burning sun. These considerations may in part account for the different results which have been obtained by chemical analysis. The average specific gravity of the sea, according to four estimates, is one thousand two hundred and three, distilled water being taken at one thousand. By the same calculations we learn, that of every hundred parts about seventy-six are water, and twenty-four salts. The vast quantities of rain, from the north, the south, and the mountain-sides of the Dead Sea, raise the waters very much, and to heights which vary with the meteorology of the season. The basin itself is, moreover, subject to great variations in the course of years. When the rainy season is at an end, the evaporation is more than sufficiently powerful to counterbalance the influx; and the level is accordingly reduced. It is sometimes supposed that the Dead Sea is the saltest water in the world. This is not quite accurate. The scale seems to be as follows:Rain-water is the purest of all; then river-water; then the supply from fresh-water lakes; then the Baltic, and the Sea of Azoff; then the Ocean; then the Mediterranean; then the Caspian and the Aral; then the Dead Sea; last, the Lakes of Elton and Urumiyeh. According to an eminent authority, the saline particles in the water of the ocean are four per cent. ; that of the Dead Sea contains twenty-six and a quarter per cent. ; * that of Lake Elton (which is situated on the steppes east of the Volga, and supplies a great part of the salt of Russia) contains twenty-nine per cent. In his "Survey of the Dead Sea," Lieutenant Lynch remarks, that two fresh hen's eggs floated up one-third of their length. They would have sunk in the Mediterranean or the Atlantic. While navigating this remarkable lake, he encountered a gale from the north-west. The wind blew fiercely, and the aspect was that of an agitated surface of foamy brine. When the wind instantaneously abated, the sea as rapidly fell with it; the heavy water settling as soon as the agitating cause ceased to act. "Within twenty minutes," he says, "from the time we bore away from a sea which threatened to engulf us, we were pulling away, at a rapid rate, over a placid sheet of water, that scarcely rippled beneath us." The depth in various places was ascertained by the lieutenant and his party. In sounding across to Ain Turâbeh, about half-way between Ain Jidy and the northern point, two furlongs from the land on the east side the soundings were twentythree fathoms. The next cast, five minutes after, one hundred and seventyfour fathoms; gradually deepening to two hundred and eighteen fathoms ; (thirteen hundred and eight feet;) the bottom soft and brown mud, with rectangular crystals of salt. At the depth of one hundred and seventy-four fathoms, (ten hundred and forty-four feet,) the temperature of the water was 62°; at the surface, 76°. "The beach, (south-west part,)" the same author tells us, "was bordered with innumerable dead locusts." Bitumen was also found in lumps. The expedition spent no less than twenty-two nights upon the lake. During this time the whole circuit of it was made. Its length by the map is forty miles, by an average breadth of about nine miles. "We have carefully sounded the sea, determined its geographical position, taken the exact topography of its shores; ascertained the temperature, width, depth, and velocity of its tributaries; collected specimens of every kind; and noted the winds, currents, changes of the weather, and all atmospheric phenomena. ...... The inference from the Bible, that this entire chasm was a plain sunk and overwhelmed by the wrath of God, seems to be sustained by the extraordinary character of our soundings. The bottom of this sea consists of two submerged plains, an elevated and a depressed one; the last averaging thirteen feet, the former about thirteen hundred, below the surface." This mysterious lake was anciently called "the Sea of the Plain," from its situation in the great plain of Jordan; "the Salt Sea," from the extreme saltness of its waters; and "the East Sea," because it lay eastward of Judæa, and in contradistinction from the West or Mediterranean Sea. It is designated by Josephus, and the Greek and Roman writers, * The specific gravity of the Dead Sea is, therefore, about one-fifth greater than that of the Ocean. In fact, the human body cannot sink in it. VOL. IX.-FIFTH SERIES. 2 Y "Lacus Asphaltites," on account of the vast quantity of bitumen with which its waters are impregnated. The Arabs call it "Bahr Lut,” or the Sea of Lot. Its modern appellation is derived from a tradition, that nothing can live in its saline and sulphurous waters. This lake occupies the southern extremity of the valley of the Jordan, and covers what was once the vale of Siddim, in which stood the five cities, commonly called "the cities of the plain;" namely, Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah, Zeboim, and Zoar; four of which were destroyed by fire, while the last was preserved at the intercession of Lot. The shores of this mysterious lake are seldom traversed by any footsteps but those of the wild Arab; not a boat, not a vessel of any description, is seen upon it; and the whole region bears an aspect of the utmost sterility and desolation, unrelieved by a single speck of verdure, or the habitation of man or beast. A few dry and stunted shrubs are the only signs of vegetation to be seen in its vicinity. Every traveller who has visited the place represents it as the most dreary that imagination can conceive; as if the country, which was so signally wicked as to require the exterminating hand of God, should bear upon it in all ages the marks and evidences of His righteous displeasure. It has been supposed by some, that the waters of the Dead Sea still cover the remains of the guilty cities; and this opinion, it has been alleged, involves nothing preternatural, nothing improbable. If we believe the Bible record, that bituminous lake does indeed cover the once fruitful Siddim, and the site of Sodom and Gomorrah. Why, then, it has been asked, may not their ruins yet exist? The remains of ancient Thebes are still to be seen on the banks of the Nile; the pyramids of Egypt have outlived the havoc of ages, and still tower as proudly as when they were first erected; and, as the traveller passes along the banks of the Euphrates, he may trace the ruins of the Tower of Babel. Why, then, should it be deemed a thing incredible, or, as a living writer calls it, a “dream of the imagination," that the fragments of the guilty cities should yet be preserved in the bed of the Dead Sea? This conjecture gathers additions! strength from the fact, that its saline waters do not decompose or destroy; on the contrary, they harden and preserve whatever is thrown into them. * Several travellers assert, that they have remarked fragments of walls and palaces in the Dead Sea. The ancients speak still more positively. Josephus, employing a poetic expression, declares that he perceived on the banks of the lake the shades of the overwhelmed cities! Strabo gives a circumference of sixty stadia (about seven miles) to the ruins of Sodom, which are mentioned also by Tacitus. “I know not,” adds Châteaubriand, "whether they still exist; but, as the lake rises and falls at certain seasons, it is possible that it may alternately cover and expose the skeletons of the reprobate cities." Maundrell says, "I must not omit what was confidently asserted to me by the Father-Guardian and the Procurator of Jerusalem, both mea in years, and seemingly not destitute either of sense or probity; namely, that they had once actually seen one of these ruins; that it was so near the shore, and the water so shallow at that time, that they, together with some Frenchmen, went to it, and found there several pillars and other fragments of buildings. The cause of our being deprived of this sight was, I suppose, the height of the water." Naturalists have indulged themselves in many speculations as to the manner in which the destruction of these cities took place, and the immediate causes by which it was effected. It is probable, as one writer judiciously observes, that in this instance, as in others, the Almighty called in the action of second causes for the accomplishment of His purpose. The most reasonable explanation is founded on what is said in Gen. xiv. 10, of the soil of the Vale of Siddim,-that it was "full of slime-pits; " or, more properly, pits of bitumen, as the rendering of the Septuagint intimates. Now, it is probable that in this instance, as in that of the Flood, the inhabitants of the offending cities were involved in destruction which met them on all sides, from above and from below ;-that the earth opened its fountains of lava, or pitch, ignited by subterraneous combustion; while a fiery shower from above expedited the complete destruction. Whatever the means employed may have been, they were evidently confined, in a remarkable manner, to the devoted district; as Lot found safety in Zoar, although but a few miles distant, and within the limits of the plain itself. This seems to show, most decisively, that the country was not destroyed by any ordinary earthquake, as some have supposed; which would scarcely have been so partial in its effects. There is also a passage (Gen. xix. 28) which much favours the above opinion respecting the combustion of the soil. It is said that Abraham "looked toward Sodom and Gomorrah, and toward all the land of the plain, and beheld, and, lo, the smoke of the country went up as the smoke of a furnace." The character of this catastrophe approaches nearest to that of a volcanic eruption. But then the vale itself, or some part of it, must have been the crater; which, pouring forth no vitreous and sluggish lava, but a far more liquid and diffusive stream from the bituminous stores beneath, involved the miserable inhabitants on all sides, from the earth and from the air, in a deluge of fire. But as these dreadful agents were set in action by Divine interposition, so, by the same agency, were they controlled in their extent and effects; and, although natural causes were made subservient to the purposes of Divine vengeance, they were still mingled with those which were supernatural: a fact which was evidenced in the preservation of Zoar, on the actual site of the conflagration. Before this event, Siddim was a rich and fertile valley, a continuation of that of the Jordan; through which, apparently, the river took its course southward, and, in the opinion of some, probably discharged itself in the Elanitic Gulf of the Red Sea, at Akabah, the site of the ancient Eziongeber. That it flowed through the vale, it has been said, may be inferred from the great fertility of the place; that it passed beyond it, is equally to be inferred, we are told, from the want of space over which the water could expand itself to be exhausted by evaporation. But, if the physical condition of the region remains unaltered, the waters of the Jordan can never in historical times have flowed into the Gulf of Akabah, in consequence of the level of the Jordan valley, which is much lower than that of the Red Sea. A series of levels from Akabah to the Dead Sea, up the |