——— 
TRANSACTIONS OF THE SECTIONS. 97 
reservoir of fresh water that has remained; and the Jordan winds its rapid course 
through the Ghor to the last deep central basin, where the excessive saltness of the 
water will now be naturally accounted for, since it is a condensation of that, which 
having been a part of the ocean, was salt ab origine. 
The process of evaporation and depression would continue, till the Dead Sea 
shouid be reduced to such an area, as would just balance the water discharged into 
it; and then the only variations would be in the oscillations of that balance, caused 
by extraordinary floods or droughts. 
From a fact observed by travellers in three consecutive years, namely, that a salient 
part of the northern shore is sometimes an island, and sometimes a peninsula, it 
would appear as if the point of equilibrium has been already attained. Whether 
this be the case or no, could be ascertained by careful observation on this fact, or 
by comparing fresh lines of soundings with those taken by Lieut. Lynch, U.S.N., 
in the southern portion of the sea, which is extremely shallow. 
A proposed new line for a Ship Canal to the East Indies through the Dead 
Sea. By Capt. W. Auten, #N., PRS. FRG. 
Referring to the communication immediately preceding, the author observes that 
the extent or elevation of the jilled-up strait, the water-shed, in fact, between the 
Dead Sea and the Gulf of Akabah, remains still undetermined. The depression is 
bounded on either side by mountain ranges several thousand feet above the level of 
the sea. Those on the east are continuous from Mount Hermon, or Anti-Libanus, 
to the Red Sea. Those on the west are broken only between the Lesser Hermon 
and Mount Gilboa, by the low plain of Esdraélon; which is watered by the brook 
Kishon, having its principal sources in the neighbourhood of Mount Tabor in the 
N.E., and in the mountains of Gilboa to the S.E. They unite near the middle of 
the plain, and flow N.W. between a shoulder of Mount Carmel and a spur of the 
Nazareth range of hills, to a little estuary in the most sheltered part of the bay of 
Acre. 
The swelling of the plain i is so gentle, that no precise part can be pointed out as 
the watershed ; but it is doubtless near the forks of the river at the village of Afuli. 
Its elevation is perhaps less than 200 feet above the Mediterranean Sea on the 
west, and about 900 feet above the Jordan, with a rapid slope to the east. 
Thus Nature has furnished a stupendous “ cutting ’’ of 200*miles in length, sepa- 
rated from a sea at either end, by avery slight barrier, which might be cut through, 
at the north end at least, with very little trouble and expense, for the plain of Es- 
draélon appears to be an alluvium of great thickness, with no obstructions of rock, 
The required length of canal here would perhaps be about 25 miles, the greater 
part in the already deeply cut bed of the Kishon, 
By damming up the head waters of the Kishon in reservoirs near the junction of 
the principal affluents, they might be used to sluice out trenches previously prepared 
by loosening the soil with mines of gunpowder, &c., so as to work east and west at 
the same time, as there is a fall both ways. When these trenches shall have been 
cut to a sufficient depth below the level of the sea, its floods being let in, would, it is 
imagined, with the aid of gunpowder, soon force a channel wide and deep enough 
for navigation. 
Likewise, if the hypothesis of the ‘“ dried-up strait ’’ at Akabah should prove to be 
correct, the difficulties of removing the barrier at that end may also be inconsiderable. 
Of this at present the data are more uncertain, as they depend on observations of 
travellers, not made for such an object. But similar aid might be afforded by the 
force of a current from the Gulf of Akabah, backed by the Indian Ocean, to clear the 
canal. 
These barriers being removed, the now Dead Sea would be restored to its ancient 
level, and would be converted into the active channel of communication between 
Europe and Asia. 
Such operations would, it is true, involve the submergence of a territory, a city, 
and some Arab villages belonging to the Sultan. But the territory is useless, the 
city is in ruins, the villages are but mud huts or tents, and it is presumed that His 
Highness and his subjects would be amply remunerated for the loss of these, by 
1852, 
