286 THE PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY OF THE SEA. 



climates, the effects of deserts upon the winds, or the influence of 

 mountains upon rains, or some of the many phenomena which 

 the inland basins of the earth — those immense indentations on its 

 surface that have no sea-drainage — present for contemplation and 

 study. 



532. Amonsr the most interestine; of these last is that of the 

 The level of the I^ead Sca. Licutcnant Lynch, of the United States 

 Dead Sea. Navy, has run a level from that sea to the Mediter- 

 ranean, and finds the former to be about one thousand three hund- 

 red feet below the general sea-level of the earth. In seeking to 

 account for this great difference of water level, the geologist exam> 

 ines the neighboring region, and calls to his aid the forces of ele- 

 vation and depression which are supposed to have resided in the 

 neighborhood ; he then points to them as the agents which did the 

 work. Truly they are mighty agents, and they have diversified 

 the surface of the earth with the most towering monuments of 

 their power. But is it necessary to suppose that they resided in 

 the vicinity of this region ? May they not have come from the 

 sea, and been, if not in this case, at least in the case of other in- 

 land basins, as far removed as tae other hemisphere ? This is a 

 question which I do not pretend to answer definitely. But the 

 inquiry as to the geological agency of the winds in such cases is 

 a question which my investigations have suggested. It has its 

 seat in the sea, and therefore I propound it as one which, in ac- 

 counting for the formation of this or that inland basin, is worthy, 

 at least, of consideration. 



533. Is there any evidence that the annual amount of precipita- 

 An ancient river ^^^^ upou the watcr-shcd of the Dead Sea, at some 

 ^i"«™ ^*- former period, was greater than the annual amount 

 of evaporation from it now is ? If yea, from what part of the sea 

 did the vapor that supplied the excess of that precipitation come, 

 and what has cut off that supply ? The mere elevation of the rim 

 and depression of the lake basin would not cut it off. If we es- 

 tablish the fact that the Dead Sea at a former period did send a 

 river to the ocean, we carry along with this fact the admission that 

 when that sea overflowed into that river, then the water that fell 

 from the clouds over the Dead Sea basin was more than the winds 

 could convert into vapor and carry away again ; the river carried 

 off the excess to the ocean whence it came (§ 260). 



