ANALYSIS OF ITS WATERS. 105 



Though, as we have said, geographical research has dissipated 

 most of the wild stories formerly accepted in reference to the pecu- 

 liarly fatal concomitants of the Dead Sea, it well deserves its expres- 

 sive name. It is a dead sea : it has neither the ocean's living 

 movement nor deep-sounding roar ; the surf and the spray never 

 sparkle on its rocks ; that " multitudinous laughter " which Homer 

 ascribes to the sea is wholly wanting ; the wind never wakes a smile 

 on its passive and sombre countenance. By its shores one might 

 realize Shelley's mournful wish, and feel 



" In the warm air 



His cheek grow cold, and hear the sea 

 Breathe o'er his dying brain its last monotony." * 



It is lifeless, untenanted; the fish found there, and brought down by the 

 Jordan, are dead. Unlike the Caspian, it is never stirred by the whirr of 

 wings by the flight of gulls, or pelicans, or sea-mews. The migratory 

 birds sweep across it without even a pause, without seeking the prey 

 which they could not find. Its waters are denser than those of other 

 seas : their constituents are different, and mingled indifferent proportions. 

 Laorty-Hadji is mistaken in his idea that they repose on a bed of 

 rock salt. Rock salt is the chloride of sodium in a nearly pure con- 

 dition. But the Dead Sea holds in solution a comparatively small 

 portion of this salt, mixed with large proportions of other salts. Its 

 water was analyzed for the first time in 1778 by Lavoiser, Macquer, 

 and Sage. Experiments have also been made by Arcet, Klaproth, 

 Gmelin, Gay-Lussac, and, more recently, by Boussingault. According 

 to the latter, it contains : 



Chloride of magnesium, 10.7288 



Chloride of sodium, 6.4964 



Chloride of calcium, 3.5592 



Chloride of potassium 1.6110 



Bromide of magnesium, 0.3306 



Sulphate of lime, 0.0424 



Sal-ammoniac, 0013 



Water,... ... 77.2303 



100.0000 



Shelley, '' Poetical Works" Stanzas Written in Dejection, &c. 



7 a 



