322 Dr R. J. Graves on the 



table kingdoms was 'perfect. It was a scene which excited mingled 

 emotions of apprehension and admiration. 



*' *About eleven o'clock we struck a vast white plain, uniformly 

 level, and utterly destitute of vegetation, or any sign that shrub or 

 plant had ever existed above its snow-like surface. Pausing a few 

 moments to rest oui" mules, and moisten our mouths and throats, 

 from the scant supply of beverage in our powder-keg, we entered 

 upon this appalling field of sullen and hoary desolation. It was a 

 scene so entirely new to us, so frightfully forbidding and unearthly 

 in its aspects, that all of us, I believe, though impressed with its 

 sublimity, felt a slight shudder of apprehension. 



*' Ascending to the summit of the mountain, just as the sun was 

 setting, I had a more extended view of the Great Salt Plain than at 

 any time previously. Far to the south-east, apparently from 100 

 to 150 miles, a solitary mountain of immense height rises from the 

 white surface of the desert, and lifts its hoary summit, so as almost 

 to pierce the blue ceiling of the skies, reflecting back from its frozen 

 pinnacle, and making frigid to the eye the warm and mellow rays of 

 the evening sun. N'o words can describe the awfulness and gran- 

 deur of this sublime desolation. The only living object I saw to- 

 day, and the only sign of animal existence, separate from our 

 party, was a small lizard.^'' 



The preceding extracts from Mr Bryant's interesting work 

 afford a proof that similar physical circumstances everywhere 

 produce similar effects ; for in America, as well as Palestine, 

 the superabundance of saline ingredients is equally destruc- 

 tive to life. 



Mr Warburton, the American traveller, the Be v. Dr 

 Robinson, and Mr Kinglake, the author of Eothen, have all 

 dwelt so much on the horrors of the Dead Sea, that I think 

 it right to trespass still further on the reader's attention, by 

 submitting to his consideration the following passages also 

 extracted from Bryant's work, which, if I mistake not, will 

 prove that the Great Salt Lake of America exhibits, in every 

 respect, features not less repulsive than those so vividly de- 

 scribed by authors as unique and peculiar to the Dead Sea. 



" fResuming our march, we took a south course over the low hills 

 bordering the valley in which we have been encamped ; thence along 

 the base of a range of elevated mountains which slope down to the 

 marshy plain of the lake. This plain varies in width, from fifteen 

 to two miles, becoming narrower as we approach what is called the 



Bryant, p. 151. f Page 136. 



