320. 
-the present day, have not been able to 
accumulate more of the dreadful than 
may justly characterize the Lake As- 
phaltites.. But these wonderful and 
horrific tales many modern trust-wor- 
thy travellers and writers have shown 
to be entirely fictitious. 
About midnight, says Chateaubriand, 
I heard a noise upon the lake which, 
the Bethlehemites told me, proceeded 
from legions of small fish, which come 
and leap about upon the shore. The 
late learned and much-respected Dr. E. 
D..Clarke remarks, “ that the waters 
of this lake, instead of proving destruc- 
tive to animal life, swarm with myriads 
of fishes; that shells abound on its 
shores, and that certain birds, instead of 
falling victims to its expalations, make 
it their peculiar resort.” 
“ We saw,”’ says Mr. Fisk, the intel- 
ligent American missionary to Jerusa- 
lem, “a great number of birds flying 
_ about its shores, and I once observed 
three or four flying over the water.” 
* The water of the Dead Sea looks re- 
markably clear and pure; but on put- 
ting it to my mouth, I found it nauseous 
and bitter, I think, beyond any thing I 
ever tasted.” 
The waters of this lake are, indeed, 
heavier than those of any other lake or 
sea that irrigates the surface of this our 
planet. Their specific gravity is 1:21], 
distilled water being 1°000. They are 
much saturated with salt. A bottle 
full of water from the lake was ana- 
lyzed in 1807; and in 100 grains were 
found’ muriate of lime, 3°220; of mag- 
nesia, 10°246; of soda, 10°360; sul- 
phate of lime, °054—Total, 24,580. In 
alike quantity of this water, 243 grains of 
salt were found. Lord Byron would have 
experienced a much easier task to swim 
an equal distance on this sea, than across 
the Hellespont ; for substances that in- 
stantly sink in fresh and ordinary salt 
water, here float with the utmost readi- 
ness. Strabo asserts, “ that men could 
not dive in this water ;’”’ this, however, 
is an error, which better information 
wonld have enabled him to avoid: he 
adds, “that going into it, they would 
not sink lower than the navel ;” this is 
probably the fact, for Pococke, who 
bathed in it, affirms “ that he could lie 
on its surface, in any attitude, motion- 
‘less, without danger of sinking.” And 
in this there is no exaggeration, it may 
readily be conceived, for most people, 
-even on fresh water, can do the same, 
if they carefully .guard against swal- 
lowing any of the water, where- 
- The Lake of Asphaltites.— Article The 
[Nov. 15 
by their specific gravity would be in- 
creased. , 
It appears, therefore, that, as to the 
. taste, especially, there is. some sem- 
blance, only, of foundation for the gene- 
ral idea respecting the Dead Sea, of 
which the peculiarities have certainly 
been heightened with all the hyperbole 
ofa vulgar error ; though now, it is pre- 
sumed, these mighty misapprehensions 
will shortly die away. 
The abovementioned and well-known 
Dr. Clarke was, I am apt to believe, 
the first who asserted that one of the 
mountains on the borders of this lake 
or sea (for it is, according to Dr. Mar- 
cet, sixty or seventy miles in length, 
and from ten to twenty in breadth) was, 
anciently, a burning and active volcano. 
From the heights of Bethlehem he ob- 
served “a mountain on the western 
shore of the lake, resembling, in form, 
the cone of Vesuvius, and having a 
crater upon the top, which was plainly 
discernible.” If this be the fact, may 
not enemies to Moses, and the History, 
through him transmitted to us, say, 
with some show of argument, that the 
destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah 
was not miraculous, but merely the 
consequence of a natural eruption of 
lava from this mountain ? 
——[= 
For the Monthly Magazine. 
Extract from Tooxre.—Vol. ii, p. 59. 
HAT, in the Anglo-Saxon Daec, 
i. e. Dead Dear), means taken, 
assumed; being merely the past parti- 
ciple of the Anglo-Saxon verb Dean, 
Dezan, Dion THIHAN Dicgan,.Dizian ; 
sumere, assumere, accipere; to the, to 
get, to take, to assume. 
* Til mote he the 
That caused me 
To make myselfe a frere.” 
Sir T. More’s Works, p. 4.' 
The (our article as it is called) is the 
imperative of the same verb Dean: which 
may very well supply the place of the 
correspondent Anglo-Saxon article re, 
which is the imperative of reon, videre ; 
for it answers the same purpose in dis- 
course to say, see man, or, take man, 
For instance— 
The man that hath not musicke in himselfe 
Is fit for treasons, &c. 
Or, 
That man is fit for treasons, &c. 
Take man(or see man;) taken man hath 
not musicke, &c. Said man, or taken 
man is, fit for treasons. 
L’ Are 
