270 John Hogg, Esq., on the Geography and 



Having before noticed the probable passage of the river 

 Jordan through the Wadi-el-Araba, and its flowing into the 

 Red Sea beyond the Strait of Tiran at a former but remote 

 period, as v^^ell as some of the physical causes which very 

 possibly put a stop to its further conflux, and latterly con- 

 fined it to the present limits of the Dead Sea, I will now 

 alone mention the following fact, as an additional proof that 

 the Dead Sea may once have formed either a continuation of 

 the -^lanitic Gulf, or that it may have been directly connected 

 with the same, by the Jordan having poured its waters into 

 it, at an antecedent date. 



Baron A. von Humboldt writes, in his " Views of Na- 

 ture,"*— 



" In opposition to the hitherto 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. Valen- 

 ciennes, has received, through the Marquis Charles de I'Escalopier, 

 and the French consul Botta, beautiful specimens of Porites elongata 

 (of Lamarckt) from the Dead Sea, which is supersaturated with salt. 

 This fact is the more interesting, because this species is not found in 

 the Mediterranean, but onl^/ in the Bed Sea, which, according to 

 Valenciennes, has but ^ew organisms in common with the Mediter- 

 ranean." 



Of the natural phenomena connected with Meteorology^ two 

 or three deserve to be enumerated. 



Y^Q first is, the great purity or clearness of the atmosphere, 

 so much so, that Wellsted J speaks of the outlines of the hills 

 in Egypt, distant 105 miles from his anchorage, a few miles 

 from Ras Furtak on the west coast of Arabia, appearing " as 

 clearly defined as if they had been but ten." See also his 

 accounts of a glimpse of Moweilih high peak (p. 74), when at 

 a vast distance from it in the Peninsula of Sinai ; and (p. 97) 

 of the hills and mountains, both in Arabia and Egypt, being 

 visible from the summit of Gebel Mousa. I ought, however, to 

 observe, these appearances of the atmosphere, all occurred in 

 the winter^ and in the same month, January ; and that they 

 cannot be expected to present themselves with the like distinct- 



* P. 260. Edit. Bohn. Lond. 1850. 



t See Tom. ii., p. 437, No. 7, Hi&t. Nat. des Anim. sans Verteb. 2d Edit. 

 Par. 1836. 



\ Travels in Arabia, vol. ii., p. 108, 



