CANALS TO THE DEAD SEA. 617 
sequently flood all the dry land below that level within the 
basin. . 
I do not know that accurate levels have been taken in the 
valley of the Jordan above the Lake of Tiberias, and our infor- 
mation is very vague as to the hypsometry of the northern 
part of the Wadi-el-Araba. As little do we know where a 
contour line, carried around the basin at the level of the Medi- 
terranean, would strike its eastern and western borders. We can- 
not, therefore, accurately compute the extent of now dry land 
which would be covered by the admission of the waters of the 
Mediterranean, or the area of the inland sea which would be 
thus created. Its length, however, would certainly exceed one 
hundred and fifty miles, and its mean breadth, including its 
gulfs and bays, could scarcely be less than fifteen, perhaps 
even twenty. It would cover very little ground now occupied 
by civilized or even uncivilized man, though some of the soil 
which would be submerged—for instance, that watered by the 
Fountain of Elisha and other neighboring sources—is of great 
fertility, and, undera wiser government and better civil insti- 
tutions, might rise to importance, because, from its depression, 
it possesses a very warm climate, and might supply South-east- 
ern Europe with tropical products more readily than they can 
be obtained from any other source. Such a canal and sea 
would be of no present commercial importance, because they 
would give access to no new markets or sources of supply ; 
but when the fertile valleys and the deserted plains east of 
the Jordan shall be reclaimed to agriculture and civilization, 
these waters would furnish a channel of communication which 
might become the medium of a very extensive trade. 
Whatever might be the economical results of the opening 
and filling of the Dead Sea basin, the creation of a new evap- 
orable area, adding not less than 2,000 or perhaps 3,000 
square miles to the present fluid surface of Syria, could not 
fail to produce important meteorological effects. The climate 
of Syria would probably be tempered, its precipitation and 
its fertility increased, the courses of its winds and the elec- 
