316 Dr R. J. Graves on the 



fluvial vegetables of Palestine, discharge their waters, and 

 yet, as the name implies, it has been generally believed to 

 harbour no living thing within its fatal boundaries. The 

 surface of this lake is said to be many hundred feet below the 

 level of the Mediterranean.* It is about sixty miles in length, 

 but varies considerably in breadth, and has of course no rivers 

 flowing from it. Until the publication of the researches of 

 Lieutenant Lynch, who was sent by the government of the 

 United States, to conduct an expedition fitted out in America 

 for the purpose of thoroughly examining the waters and 

 shores of the Dead Sea, we absolutely knew nothing certain or 

 definite respecting either. To our enterprising transatlantic 

 brethren we are indebted for the first chart of a lake which lies 

 as it were in the very cradle of civilization, and which, never- 

 theless, had (as far as we are aware) never before been sur- 

 veyed or even navigated. My countryman, Costigan, it is 

 true, succeeded in launching on it his frail skiff, but he very 

 speedily fell a victim to excessive anxiety, fatigue, and the bane- 

 ful efibcts of climate; and the observations subsequently made 

 by Molyneux, Robinson, Kinglake, and Warburton, however 

 interesting to the general reader, contained nothing sufficient- 

 ly accurate to form the groundwork of scientific conclusions. 



The progress of geographical discovery has lately brought 

 to light the existence of an inland sea still more exten- 

 sive, and displaying within its boundaries an absence of 

 life equally remarkable, viz., the Great Salt Lake of North 

 America, first navigated in 1847 by Fremont, commander 

 of the exploring expedition fitted out by the government 

 of the United States. This lake has many and striking 

 points of resemblance with the Dead Sea, some of which 

 it may be well to enumerate. 



1^^, It is equally salt, and, of course, has as high a specific 

 gravity. 



2dli/i Its banks and the neighbouring country abound 

 equally in great deposits of salt, and the various rocks usually 

 associated with these natural magazines of salt. 



• According to several measurements the surface of the Dead Sea is rather 

 more than 1300 feet below the level of the Mediterranean. Its depth is above 

 1000 feet, and breadth nine miles. -Edit. Phil. Journ. 



