1848.J PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY. 505 



southern end of the lake,, where the earthy matters and 

 foreign substances would naturally be carried by the stron°- 

 current flowing in from the Jordan. 



(3.) From the dimensions of the sea, as previously given, 

 it will be inferred that it is nearly oblong in shape ; and it is 

 rarely less than five, or more than eight or nine miles, in 

 breadth, except directly at the ends. Its eastern and western 

 shores run almost duly north and south. In the continuity 

 of its plan, or the general regularity of its shape and form, 

 there is a fault, occasioned by a peninsula, shaped like a foot 

 and ankle with the toe pointing to the north, that projects 

 out from the eastern shore about eight miles from the south 

 end of the lake, and is separated from the western bank by a 

 strait or channel averaging two miles in width, and between 

 six and seven miles long. South of the peninsula the water 

 is, upon an average, only thirteen feet deep ; but in the 

 northern sea the average is over one thousand feet. The 

 bottom of the channel shelves gradually downwards from the 

 shallow bed of the southern sea to the greater depth of the 

 upper. Opposite the north point of the peninsula, the water 

 is upwards of one hundred fathoms deep in the centre of the 

 channel, and opposite the heel, or southern point, it is only 

 three fathoms. 



On either hand, the sea is flanked by lofty and arid moun- 

 tains. On the west are the sterile cliffs of Judea, from one 

 thousand to fifteen hundred feet high, in some places looking 

 as if they had been scathed with fire, in others wearing a 

 rose-colored or purple hue, and elsewhere presenting a chalky 

 appearance. At the foot of these barren icinerated hills, are 

 banks of sand and dust, impalpable as ashes, and innumera- 

 ble boulders bleached by long exposure to the sun. Masses 

 of conglomerate, too, may be seen, here and there, wasting 

 away beneath the winter rain, or glowing in the hot sun that 

 beats upon this desert waste during the long-continued sum- 

 mer. On the east, the sea is skirted by the rugged precipices 

 and battlemented heights of Moab, that form the continuation 

 of the Hauran range. They, also, are comparatively bare of 



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