1848.] SURVEYS AND EXPLORATIONS. 497 



— the latter being the terra used by the descendants of Ish- 

 mael to perpetuate the remembrance of the escape of Lot 

 from the fearful judgment of the Almighty. 



Immediately upon the arrival of the American Exploring 

 party on the shore of the Dead Sea, a depot was established 

 at Am Jidy* (Engaddi), on the western bank, which was 

 guarded by a few soldiers obtained from the Pasha of Jeru- 

 salem. The Sherif and his servant remained at the depot, 

 but 'Akil and his Bedawin followers proceeded round the 

 lake to Kerak, to establish a look-out for the party on the 

 Arabian shore, and to make preparations for furnishing them 

 with supplies, and ensuring their good treatment by the 

 inhabitants, if they should decide to visit the land of Moab. 



After a day of rest, on the 20th of April, the work of sur- 

 veying and exploring the lake commenced. Diagonal sound- 

 ings were made from shore to shore — a cast being taken every 

 half-mile. The strait formed by the peninsula projecting from 

 the eastern shore, was carefully and critically examined, in 

 order to prove or disprove the existence of the ford mentioned 

 ^y previous travellers in the Holy Land. Nothing of the 



.ind was found. On the contrary, the bottom of the lake 

 . 'as ascertained to slope gradually upwards to its southern 

 .xtremity. The boats proceeded as far in this direction as 



/as possible, — the water having shoaled so much that they 

 . ould go no further. Within three hundred yards of the 



outhern shore, near the cave of Usdum (Sodom), the boats 

 grounded in six inches ; but several members of the party 

 waded through the water to the land. The intense heat 



ties of the Babylonian lake occurs in the writings of Vitruvius (8. 3), of Pliny 

 (H. N. 35. 15) of Athensus (2. 5), and of Xiphilinus, (p. 252.) From their 

 various testimony, it is evident, that all the phenomena supposed to belong to 

 the lake Asphaltites near Babylon, were, from the similarity of their names, 

 ultimately considered as the natural characteristics of the Judfean lake — the two 

 Asphaltites being confounded."— Dr. Clarke's Travels, vol. iv, p. 400. 



* Lieutenant Lynch twice refers (Narrative, pp. 291, 323) to the "Diamond 

 of the Desert," mentioned by Sir Walter Scott in his " Talisman" as being at or 

 near Ain Jidy (the fountain of the kid). He is certainly in error in this respect^ 

 The fountain in which Kenneth and Saladin reposed, was that of Ain-es- 

 Sultan. or the fountain of Elisha, near Jericho, 



