DEAD-LETTER OFFICE 



1717 



DEAD SEA 



DEAD-LETTER OFFICE, a division of the 

 Postoffice Department of a country, where all 

 mail matter which is unclaimed or cannot be 

 delivered is sent from the local post offices 

 throughout the country. This matter includes 

 letters and packages which have remained for 

 one month uncalled for; all that are imper- 

 fectly addressed or are without stamps, unless 

 sender is known; also all articles barred from 

 the mails liquids, live animals and explosives. 

 Excluded from the above are all pieces of un- 

 delivered mail matter which bear the names 

 of the senders and can thus be returned to 

 them. 



The amount of mail matter which the Dead- 

 Letter Office of the United States receives runs 

 into millions of pieces annually. Statistics for 

 a recent year show that 7,500,000 pieces of 

 undeliverable mail were sent to the Dead- 

 Letter Office, 5,400,000 of this number being 

 letters and parcels. Over 250,000 of the letters 

 contained money, checks, notes and money 

 orders. Of these the government, by opening 

 letters and packages, was able to return to the 

 senders sums amounting to $1,150,000. There 

 was still left in the government's hands $15,000, 

 which was added to the revenue of the postal 

 department because its ownership could not 

 be established. Over 4,000,000 pieces were de- 

 stroyed because they were without names. 

 Thousands of misdirected magazines and news- 

 papers are distributed among the hospitals of 

 Washington yearly. 



This department of the postoffice is under 

 the control of the First Assistant Postmaster- 

 General. Until January 1, 1917, the Dead- 

 Letter division was controlled entirely from 

 Washington, but on that date three branches 

 were established at New York, Chicago and 

 San Francisco to handle all dead-letter ma- 

 terial within specified zones. 



DEAD SEA, a salt lake or sea in the south- 

 eastern corner of Palestine, wholly unlike any 

 other body of water in the world. It lies at 

 the bottom of the deepest "fault" or fracture 

 of the earth's surface in the world 1,310 feet 

 below sea level. The River Jordan, the most 

 noted stream in history, flows into it from the 

 north through a rapidly descending valley. On 

 the east the white limestone walls of the plain 

 of Moab rise abruptly 4,400 feet above it, 

 while the plateau of Judea towers half that 

 height on the west. 



The lake itself is about forty-seven miles 

 long and ten miles wide, with an area of 300 

 square miles. The water contains about 



twenty-five per cent of solid matter, chiefly 

 common salt, which is practically double the 

 percentage of salt in the Great Salt Lake, Utah. 

 It is nearly six times as salt as the ocean and 

 so dense that a human body will float on the 

 surface. Although the Jordan pours several 

 million gallons of fresh water into the Dead 

 Sea every day and the sea itself has no outlet, 

 the water never rises any higher and never 

 grows less salty. This condition is due to 

 evaporation, because the heat in this deep cleft 

 of the earth is very intense. There is not a 

 vestige of animal life in the sea or in its 

 vicinity, and no vegetation can grow there. 

 Sulphur and rock salt and lava strew its shores. 

 Poisonous gases escape from its surface, and 



LOCATION MAP 



the water is ill-smelling. Altogether thera is 

 no place in the world more utterly desolate 

 and repelling. So much has this been recog- 

 nized that "Dead Sea" has become a synonym 

 for evil and bitter disappointment. 



It has a long history, dating away back into 

 earliest ages. The tradition of its formation 

 may be read in Genesis; where it is told that 

 the wicked cities of Sodom and Gomorrah were 

 destroyed, after the escape of the righteous Lot 

 and his family, by a rain of fire and brimstone 

 (perhaps a volcanic eruption) and that they 

 were covered up by the "Salt Sea." To this 

 day the Arabs call it Bahr Lut sea of Lot. 



