378 SKETCHES OF PALESTINE. 



Sea. By Josephus, and the Greek and Roman writers, it is spokeft 

 of under the appellation of Lake Asphaltites, that is, the Bitumin- 

 ous Lake. St. Jerome styles it the Dead Sea, because, according 

 to the tradition, nothing could live in it. The Arabs call it El 

 Amout (the dead), and Bohr Louth, or the Sea of Lot; and the 

 Turks, according to Chateaubriand, Ula Deguisi. It is a lake 

 lying between two ranges of mountains, which enclose it on the 

 east and the west ; on the north it receives the Jordan from the 

 plain of Jericho ; while, on the south, it is equally open, and yet it 

 has no outlet for its waters. Reland, Pococke, and other travellers, 

 have supposed that it must throw off its superfluous waters by 

 some subterraneous channel ; but, although it has been calculated 

 that the Jordan daily discharges into it 6,090,000 tons of water, 

 besides what it receives from the Arnon and several smaller 

 streams, it is now known, that the loss by evaporation is adequate 

 to explain the absorption of the waters. Its occasional rise and 

 fall at certain seasons, is doubtless owing to the greater or less 

 volume which the Jordan and the other streams bring down from 

 the mountains. 



The Jordan, at its embouchure, is deep and rapid, rolling a vol- 

 ume of waters from two to three hundred feet in width, with a cur- 

 rent so violent, that an expert swimmer, who attended Mr. Jolliffe, 

 found it impracticable to cross it. Dr. Shaw describes it, indeed, 

 as not more than thirty yards broad, and Maundrell, as only about 

 twenty yards over ; but they speak of its appearance at some dis- 

 tance from the mouth, where the pilgrims bathe. The former af- 

 firms that it runs about two miles an hour, while the latter speaks 

 of its violent and turbid current, * too rapid to be swam against.' 

 It was the old opinion, that the waters of the river passed through 

 the lake without mingling with it ; and ' I thought I saw,' says Po- 

 cocke, ' the stream of a different color.' The fact is, that the water 

 of the lake is clear and of the color of the sea, while that of the Jor- 

 dan is muddy, and of course discolors the lake with its yellow cur- 

 rent. 



The specific gravity of the waters of the Dead Sea is supposed to 

 have been much exaggerated by the ancient writers, but their state- 

 ments are now proved to be by no means very wide of the truth. 

 Pliny says, that no living bodies would sink in it; and Strabo, that 

 persons who went into it were borne up to their middle. Josephus 

 states, that Vespasian tried the experiment, by ordering some per- 

 sons who could not swim, to be thrown into the water with their 

 hands tied behind them, and that they all floated, as if impelled up- 

 wards by a subterranean current. Maundrell says; Being willing 

 to make au experiment of its strength, I went into it, and found it 

 bore up my body in swimming with an uncommon force. But as 

 for that relation of some authors, that men wading into it were 

 buoyed up to the top as soon as they go as deep as the navel, I 

 found it by experiment not true.' 



The question of its specific gravity, has been set to rest by the 



