320 Dr R. J. Graves on the 



exist even in the highly saline waters of these lakes, for 

 no investigations have been made sufficiently numerous or 

 accurate to determine this curious question. Indeed, Fremont 

 (p. 153) discovered numerous larva of insects or skins of worms, 

 as he calls them, on the shore of an island in the Great Salt 

 Lake, but he had no means of determining eitlier the species 

 or the habitat, — but those he observed were dead and evidently 

 thrown up by the waves, — the individuals were not larger than 

 a grain of oats. Future observers should seek for them, or 

 something similar on the shores of the Dead Sea.* A very 

 interesting subject of inquiry here suggests itself. We have 

 observed that the rivers which flow into the Dead Sea and 

 the Great Salt Lake are peculiarly rich in fishes. Are these 

 fishes of species peculiar to these rivers, or do they occur in 

 other parts of Palestine and North America ? The researches 

 of my friend Agassiz, published in a previous number of this 

 Journal, induce me to favour the former supposition. 



With respect to plants, salt in any considerable quantity 

 proves destructive to the ordinary species. This is proved 

 by the experiments of Dr Voelcker, detailed in the Eeport 

 of the 20th Meeting of the British Association, p. 115. He 

 found that most plants were injured seriously when watered 

 for a month with water containing 100 grains of common 

 salt to a pint of water, i. e., about yV part of salts. Compare 

 this result with the waters of the Great Salt Lake or Dead 

 Sea, and we at once perceive that it is impossible for any 

 plant to live in so intensely saline a medium. Dr Voelcker 

 found that the grasses are affected more injuriously by salt 

 than any other family of plants, a fact which explains the 



* Since writing the above, I find that my anticipations have been confirmed, 

 for Baron A. von Humboldt (Views of Nature, Edit. Bohn. Lond. 1850. p. 260) 

 states, " in opposition to the generally adopted opinion respecting the absence 

 of all organisms, and living creatures in the Dead Sea, it is worthy of notice, 

 that my friend and fellow labourer, M. Valenciennes, has received beautiful 

 specimens of Porites elongata (Lamarck), from the Dead Sea, which is super- 

 saturated with salt. 



Humboldt does not mention whether these specimens were found in parts 

 where the water is really supersaturated, or only in the estuaries of rivers, 

 where it is brackish ; from the occurrence of this species in the Red Sea, it 

 appears to me very improbable that it could also exist in water so much more 

 impregnated with salt than that of the ocean, as the undiluted water of the 

 Dead Sea is. 



