NEW CHAPTERS IN THE WARFARE OF SCIENCE. 443 



length and nine miles in width; it lies in a very deep fissure 

 extending north and south, and its surface is about thirteen hun- 

 dred feet below that of the Mediterranean. It has, therefore, no 

 outlet, and is the receptacle for the waters of the whole system to 

 which it belongs, including those collected by the Sea of Galilee 

 and brought down thence by the river Jordan. 



It certainly or, at least, the larger part of it ranks geologi- 

 cally among the oldest lakes on earth. In a broad sense the re- 

 gion is volcanic: on its shore are evidences of volcanic action 

 which must, from the earliest period, have aroused wonder and 

 fear, and stimulated the myth-making tendency to account for 

 them. On the eastern side are impressive mountain-masses which 

 have been thrown up from old volcanic vents ; mineral and hot 

 springs abound, some of them spreading sulphurous odors ; earth- 

 quakes have been frequent, and from time to time these cast up 

 masses of bitumen ; concretions of sulphur and large formations 

 of salt constantly appear. 



The water which comes from the springs or oozes through the 

 salt layers upon its shores constantly brings in various salts in 

 solution, and, being rapidly evaporated under the hot sun and 

 dry wind, there has been left, in the bed of the lake, a strong 

 brine heavily charged with the usual chlorides and bromides a 

 sort of bitter " mother liquor." This fluid has become so dense as 

 to have a remarkable power of supporting the human body ; is of 

 an acrid and nauseating bitterness ; and by ordinary eyes no evi- 

 dence of life is seen in it. 



Thus it was that in the lake itself, and in its surrounding 

 shores, there was enough to make the generation of explanatory 

 myths on a large scale inevitable. 



The main northern part of the lake is very deep, the plummet 

 having shown an abyss of thirteen hundred feet, but the south- 

 ern end is shallow and in places marshy. 



The system of which it forms a part shows a likeness to that 

 in South America, of which the mountain lake Titicaca is the 

 main feature ; as a receptacle for surplus waters, only rendering 

 them by evaporation, it resembles the Caspian and many other 

 seas ; as a sort of evaporating dish for the leachings of salt rock, 

 and consequently holding a body of water unfit to support the 

 higher forms of animal life, it resembles, among others, the Me- 

 dian lake of Urumiah ; as a deposit of bitumen, it resembles the 

 pitch lakes of Trinidad. 



Striking, then, as was the Dead Sea in its appearance to pre- 

 scientific man, there is nothing in it of extraordinary difficulty to 

 the modern geologist or geographer.* 



* For modern views of the Dead Sea, see the Rev. Edward Robinson, D. D., " Biblical 

 Researches," various editions ; Lynch's " Exploring Expedition " ; De Saulcy, " Voyage 



