8 Why the Dead Sea 



Ability of railing itfelf to a confiderable Height ; ( for there 

 is no Valley, through which it can infinuate itfelf betwixt 

 Mount Carmel and thefe Hills; ) is a Problem in Hydrojiatkks 

 that requires fome further Explication, than what this Author 

 has hitherto thought fit to give us. 

 No Com- Neither will this Author allow, as I have urged, ( Trav. 



munication . r t i • i 



betwixt the p^ 574,.) that the great Quantity of Vapour, which the Sun is 



Dead Sea-xndL IT / . ^ ■, ■, ■,• r i m ] n • i 



the iv/f^/V*'- perpetually ramng and exhaling rrom the iJead bea, is the 

 Caufe why it never overflows its Banks. He attributes it alto- 

 gether to thofe Subterraneous Palfages and Communications, 

 which he fuppofes to lye betwixt the Dead Sea and the Medi- 

 terranean. Now, in all phyfical Inquiries and Difquifitions, it 

 is furely more reafonable and philofophical, to acquie fee in 

 Concluiions drawn from noted and indifputable Experiments, 

 than from the bare Suppofition of the Exiftence of Things ; 

 the very Exiftence of which Things may not only be difputed, 

 but even abfolutely denyed. For no Pafl^ages or Outletts have 

 hitherto been difcovered, (and it may be pre fumed there never 

 will,) betwixt xhQ'DeadSea and the Mediterranean : nay, it is 

 probable, from the low Situation of the For?ner, that the Latter 

 may lye much higher, and confequently be the Agent, in this 

 Cafe. Whereas nothing can be more obvious to the Eye of 

 every common Obferver, than, in what a fmall Space of Time, 

 the Sun dries up a little Pool of Water ; and confequently the 

 proportionable Influence it muft have upon a greater Quantity, 

 fuch as Lakes and Seas. 

 The Dead inftead therefore of folving this Difficulty, by E'vaporation, 

 much°byVa-the Mcthod, perhaps the only philofophical one, which I 

 recd've''s'by have propofed ; and then making up the Deficiencies of the 

 &c. '^'"'''"' Jordan, by an additional Supply from other Streams ; this Au- 

 thor contents himfelf with laying down only fome precarious 

 Conjedlures, and dubious Suppofitions about it ; which, upon 

 the moft candid Examination, will be found to prove neither 

 one way nor another. Thus (p. 3 5-. Vol. x. ) he ohferves it to 

 he verjf extraordinary (without afligning the leaft Reafon why 

 it fliould be fo) that no Outlet t of this Lake has been difcovered : 

 hut it is fuppofed (by whom, or upon what Account, he does 

 not fay,) that there muft he fome fuhterraneous Tqffages into 

 the Mediterranean. And it may he queftioned nvhether fo much 

 of the iVater could evaporate , (according, as it may be prefumed, 



to 



