314 On the Waters of the Dead Sea. 
authors, again, it is often referred to by the name of “ Lacus 
Asphaltites,” or the “ Bituminous Lake,” and many remarks 
upon the exceeding saltness of its waters, and the sterility 
and desolate aspect of its shores, are to be found in the pages 
of Tacitus and Pliny.* , 
The lake itself, as is well known to every person acquainted 
with geography, is situated in the south of Palestine, at no 
great distance from Jerusalem, and is principally supplied by 
that venerated stream, the Jordan. Its breadth, it would 
appear from a recent survey, undertaken by Messrs Moore 
and Beke, in 1887, is about nine miles, and its length, accord- 
ing to the same authorities, is thirty-nine or forty miles. The 
latter, however, is found to vary considerably at different times 
of the year, according to the extent of the influx derived from 
the Jordan and other tributary rivers.t| The bottom these 
gentlemen found to be rocky and of very unequal depth, 
ranging 120, 180, 240, and even 480 feet, all within the dis- 
tance of afew yards. With regard to its geological situation, 
the lake lies in a deep basin, of an irregular oblong figure, 
and is surrounded by steep cliffs of naked limestone, which, 
on the western side, run up to the height of 1500, and on the 
eastern to 2500 feet above the level of the water. 
On the surface of the sea, there is often found floating an 
immense quantity of asphaltum, which is generally carried 
by the influence of the wind to the western and southern 
shores, where it is carefully collected by the Arabs, who use 
it as pitch and sell it for medicinal purposes. It was this 
substance which seems to have been employed in ancient 
times, by the Egyptians, to a very great extent, for embalm- 
ing bodies. There are also several mines of sulphur and 
rock-salt in the sides of the mountains on the western coast, 
which not only afford supplies of those useful articles to the 
Arabs, but even to the inhabitants of the Holy City. Indeed, 
many travellers have stated that the remarkable saltness of 
* Tacit. lib. v. Hist. cap. vi.; Strabonis Geogr. Plinii, lib. v. cap. xv, and 
xvi.; see also vol. ii., p. 1107. 
+ It is more than probable that its dimensions have become contracted in 
modern times, as, if we may believe Josephus, at the period when he wrote, it 
was 72 miles long, by 18 broad. 
