X02 On the Difference of Level between the 



two English miles distant from it, or 1319 Parisian feet (up- 

 wards of 1400 English feet) below the level of the Medi- 

 terranean Sea. It ought not to be left without notice, that 

 the results of Schubert, or rather of Erdl, rest only on esti- 

 mates, and not on observations. Thus, in a manuscript, now 

 lying before me, it is said: ' 1837, April 12. Jericho, dur- 

 ing a violent storm in the evening the mercury stood so high 

 as to be covered by the wooden mounting. As far as could 

 be estimated by inclining it, it must have reached at least to 

 347'"=28" 11'" ; thermometer 25 f E (88°.o3 F.). April 13. 

 at mid-day in fine weather, the same circumstance took place 

 ftt the Dead Sea, that the glass tube was visible for too short 

 a distance, and that the scale could not be observed to a suf- 

 ficient height. According to the estimate of its height formed 

 by inclining it, the mercury must have stood at 348'" = 29" 0'" ; 

 thermometer = 23|° R. (85o.l5 F.).' From these estimated 

 a.nd not observed heights of the barometer, Steinheil has cal- 

 culated the depression of Jericho at 527.7, and that of the 

 surface of the Dead Sea at 598.5 Parisian feet under the level 

 of the Mediterranean. As Russegger''s barometer still ad- 

 mitted of the actual reading of the height of the mercury, we 

 might certainly be inclined to give his results the preference, 

 or at all events the number assigned by him to Jericho. It 

 seems, however, doubtful, and not reconcilable with appear- 

 ances, that the Dead Sea should lie 545 feet lower than Jericho. 

 What Eussegger termed a castle, at which he made his obser- 

 vations, is a tower of about 30 feet in height, and if we esti- 

 mate the difference of height between the surface of the earth 

 at Jericho, and that of the Dead Sea, at 80 or 90 (180 or 

 190 ?) feet, we obtain for the surface of the latter, at the 

 most, a depression of 990 Parisian feet (upwards of 1050 

 English feet) imder the level of the Mediterranean, whi<;h 

 corresponds well with the depression of the Sea of Galilee, 

 deduced from the observations of Erdl. On the 23d April 

 1837, at 5 o'clock p.m., at the Lake of Genezareth, the height 

 of the mercury was actually observed to be 28" 10'". 5, at a 

 temperature of 15f R. (67°.15 F.). Hence Steinheil finds 

 th3 level of tho lake to be 535.3 Parisian feet under the 

 level of the Mediterranean ; therefore, compared with the 

 mbove amount (990 feet), we have 455 feet for the height of 



