Dec. 8, 1856.] POOLE ON THE SHORES OF THE DEAD SEA. 223 



during the day from 90° to 100°, and at night about 8CP. By the 

 imperfect mode of wetting the bulb of the thermometer, the dew- 

 point was far below the extreme cases calculated in psychometrical 

 tables. The evaporation was rapid, and the dryness very great, on 

 the shores of ihe Dead Sea. My aneroid (I had no other barometer) 

 showed a pressure of 31-50 inches and upwards, which is higher 

 than the ordinary barometers are graduated to read. 



The small fish which I caught close to the shore of the Dead Sea, 

 in a brine spring flowing into that sea near Usdum Mountain, at a 

 temperature of 90°, and presented to the British Museum, have been 

 named by Sir John Richardson, to whom they were submitted, 

 as " Lebias," or Cyprinodon Hammonis of Cuvier, and which had 

 been previously found in the Red Sea. He considers it would be 

 of great interest to prove the fact if these fish live in the Dead Sea. 

 At the time when I caught them, I believed them to be the young 

 fry, and not full-grown fish, and therefore I kept all I caught, and 

 never thought of putting any into the Dead Sea to see if they would 

 swim in it. Similar, but larger, fish (about three inches long) 

 were afterwards seen, but not caught, at Ain Terabeh, near the 

 north end of the Dead Sea. The fish called minnows, caught by 

 Lieut. Lynch in the Jordan, may also belong to the same class. If 

 so, may not these fish have come down with the floods of spring, 

 when the waters of the Sea would be less salt, and thus have been 

 able to pass to the south end of the Sea, even supposing that they 

 could not live in it at other periods of the year ? 



Lieut. Lynch states that the water is at an uniform temperature 

 of 59° at a depth of 10 fathoms, while he found the surface tempera- 

 ture to average 76°. It would therefore be of great interest to 

 obtain the specific gravities, as well as temperatures, of that Sea 

 at different depths. 



I observed three different kinds of wild-fowl swimming and 

 diving in the Dead Sea, evidently feeding, and it would be of im- 

 portance if some could be shot at such a time, so as to examine their 

 crops and see the nature of their food. In theory, it would be as 

 difficult for ducks to dive as fishes to swim in the Dead Sea, and 

 therefore that objection must now fall to the ground. 



Lieut. Lynch speaks of a phosphorescent appearance in the Sea, 

 but I did not observe any : if water were obtained at such a time, 

 it should contain animalcules* 



The difference in the suiface-level of the Dead Sea should also be 

 noted at different seasons of the year. 



As I have lately seen the report of some most interesting me- 

 teorological observations having been made at a considerable height 



