534 Formation of the Dead Sea, 



El Ghor (where the temperature is often 100° in the shade), 

 without being evaporated before it could run a course of two 

 hundred miles. 



But Dr. Daubeny, as we have already stated, imagines the 

 Dead Sea to be an accumulation of the waters brought into 

 the Vale of Siddim by the Jordan; yet it is not easy to imagine 

 how this can be its origin. The streamlet of Puy de la Vache 

 may produce the Lake of Aidat; but the sun which shines on 

 Auvergne is cold in comparison with that which shines on the 

 asphaltite lake. It is far more probable that the earth on 

 which the devoted cities stood sunk inwards at the time of 

 their destruction, and that the lake was then immediately 

 formed, as in the case of Euphemia. 



" The Dead Sea," says Maundrell, " is clear, salt in the 

 highest degree, bitter and nauseous.'* Now, these properties 

 are entirely owing to the muriates of lime and magnesia which 

 exist in it. But these salts do not exist in the Jordan ; and, 

 therefore, they must have been added to the waters of Jordan 

 after they formed this lake (if, indeed, the lake were formed as 

 Dr. Daubeny supposes), as they do not exist in the Jordan. 

 Dr. Daubeny gives two analyses, but they both militate against 

 his opinion ; for the river contains more of the salts of potash 

 than the sea. These salts are derived from the decomposition 

 of the feldspathic rocks to the north of Jericho ; and although 

 it may be supposed that this source is unequal to the pro- 

 duction of a quantity that could be noticed in the Dead Sea, 

 this objection vanishes when we recollect that our own country 

 is dependent on a similar decomposition of the rocks in north- 

 ern India, for the production of nitrate of potash, or saltpetre, 

 so extensively used in the manufacture of gunpowder. 



We may here remark that all the analyses of the waters of 

 the Dead Sea, which we have seen, are decidedly erroneous ; 

 and that by Hermstaedt, which Dr. Daubeny prefers, appears 

 to us the worst : for we cannot understand how sulphate of 

 soda and muriate of lime can exist together in the same 

 liquid. We have recently had an opportunity of analysing 

 some specimens of JPi^cus vesiculosus and Crithmum mariti- 

 mum which were gathered on the shores of the Dead Sea, 

 and found them to contain iodine in much the same quantity 

 as in similar plants growing on the coast of Kent : and this 

 leads us to suspect that an accurate analysis would discover 

 tUe presence of hydriodate of soda in that sea. 



