SKETCHES OF PALESTINE. 379 



chemical analysis of the waters made by Dr. Marcet, and publish- 

 ed in the London Philosophical Transactions for 1807. In 1778, 

 Messrs. Lavoisier, Macquer, and Le Sage had concluded, by experi- 

 ment, that a hundred pounds of the water contain forty -live pounds 

 six ounces of salt ; that is, six pounds four ounces of common ma- 

 rine salt, and thirty-eight ounces of marine salt with an earthly 

 base. But Dr. Marcet's more accurate analysis has determined the 

 specific gravity to be 1,211, (that of fresh water being 1000,) a de- 

 gree of density not to be met with in any other natural water ; and 

 it holds in solution the following salts, in the stated proportions to 

 100 grains of the water: 



Muriate of lime 3,920 grains. 



Muriate of magnesia 10,246 



Muriate of soda 10,360 

 Sulphate of lime 0,054 



24,580 



So that the water of the lake contains about one-fourth of its weight 

 of salts, supposed in a state of perfect desiccation ; or if they be 

 desiccated at the temperature of 180 on Fahrenheit's scale, they 

 will amount to forty -one per cent, of the water. Its other general 

 properties are, that, 1. As stated by all travellers, it is perfectly 

 transparent. 2. Its taste is extremely bitter, saline, and pungent. 

 3. Re-agents demonstrate in it the presence of the marine and sul- 

 phuric acids. 4. It contains no alumine. 5. It is not saturated 

 with common salt. 6. It did not change the colors of the infusions 

 commonly used to ascertain the prevalence of an acid or an alkali, 

 such as litmus, violet and tumeric. 



The water of the Jordan, when analysed, exhibited results strik- 

 ingly dissimilar. It is soft, has no saline taste, and 500 grains evap- 

 orated at 200, left 0.8 grains of dry residue : that is, only 1-300 part 

 of the proportion of solid matter that is contained in the water of 

 the lake. Carbonate of lime was detected in the water of the river, 

 of which there is no trace in the salt water ; and two other precipi- 

 tates were produced, one of them magnesian. It is impossible to 

 account for this remarkable difference, on any other principle than 

 that which refers the origin of the lake to the convulsion recorded 

 in the Scripture narrative. 



The Scriptural account is explicit, that ' the Lord rained upon 

 Sodom and upon Gomorrah brimstone and fire from heaven ;' v/hich 

 vre may safely interpret as implying a shower of inflamed sulphur, 

 or nitre. At the same time it is evident, that the whole plain un- 

 derwent a simultaneous convulsion, which seem referrible to the 

 consequences of a bituminous explosion. In perfect accordance 

 with this view of the catastrophe, we find the very materials, as it 

 were, of this awful visitation still at hand in the neighboring hills; 

 from which they might have been poured by the agency of a thun- 



