THE GEOLOaiCAL AGENCY OF THE WINDS. 275 



each one hokling on by the same thread, and following it up into 

 the same labyrinth — all, it may be, with different objects in view, 

 but, nevertheless, each one feeling sure that he is to be led into 

 chambers where there are stores of knowledge and instruction espe- 

 cially for him. And thus, in imdertaking to explore the physical 

 geography of the sea, I have found myself standing side by side 

 with the geologist on the land, and with him, far away from the 

 sea-shore, engaged in considering marine fossils, changes of ch- 

 mates, the effects of deserts upon the winds, or the influence of moun- 

 tains upon rains, or some of the many phenomena which the 

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

 face that have no sea-drainage — present for contemplation and study. 



532. Among the most interesting of these last is that of the 

 The level of the Dead Sca. Lieutenant 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 hun- 

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

 account for this great difference of water-level, the geologist ex- 

 amines the neighbom^ing region, and calls to his aid the forces of 

 elevation and depression which are supposed to have resided in the 

 neighbom'hood ; he then points to them as the agents which did the 

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

 the sm-face 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 the 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 propomid it as one which, in accounting 

 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 tiou upoxL the watcr-shcd of the Dead Sea, at some 

 ^^^"^ "• former period, was greater than the annual amount 

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

 did the vapour 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 esta- 

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



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