Bed 
* 
5330 Description of Minerals from Palestine. 
_ “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.” Dr. Clarke remarks, ‘that the waters of this 
lake, instead of proving destructive of animal life, swarm with 
myriads of fishes; that shells abound on its shores, and that 
certain birds, instead of falling victims to its exhalations, make 
it their peculiar resort.” 
e saw a great number of birds,” says Mr. Fisk, “ flying 
asian its shores, ra | once observed three or four lying 
over the water.” 
“The water of the Dead Sea,” adds this ene mis- 
sionary, ‘‘looks remarkably clear and pure; but, on taking it 
into my mouth, | found it nauseous and bitter, I dick, beyond 
any thing | ever tasted.” 
The waters of this lake are, indeed, heavier than those of 
any other lake or sea on the face of our planet. Their speci- 
fic gravity is 1.211, distilled water being 1.000. They are 
almost completely saturated with saline matter. A bottle of 
this water was analyzed by Dr. Marcet of London, in 1807. 
Tn 100 grains of it he foun 
Grains, 
Muriate of lime, . « 3.920 
Muriate of magnesia - 10.246 
Muriate of soda, - - 10.360 
Sulphate of lime, - : 054 
24.580 
In 100 grains of the water there are 243 grainsof salt. A 
person can swim more easily in the Dead Sea than in fresh 
tater, or inthe ocean. A substance which would sink in or- 
dinary salt water, will, consequently, be urged to the surface 
in this sea. Strabo asserts. ‘that men could'not dive in this 
water ;” which is not strictly true, and ‘ that going into it, they 
would not sink lower than the navel.” This is probably correct. 
Pocoke, who bathed in it, affirms, “ that he could lie on its 
surface, motionless, and in any attitude,without danger of sink- 
ring.” his is no exaggeration. Most people can do the 
same, even on fresh water, provided they do not allow the 
corte of their bodies to be increased by swallowing the 
wat 
tr. Clarke is, if I mistake not, the first traveller who has 
asserted, that one of the mountains which enclose the Dead 
