13 On the Valley of the Jordan and the Dead Sea. 



It is mainly owing to an inattention to these seriously modify- 

 ing causes, that the astonishing difference in the weight and rela- 

 tive proportion of soluble salts, found by Gay Lussac and others, 

 in the portions analyzed by them, is chiefly attributable. The 

 water analyzed by Dr. Apjohn, and having a less specific gravity 

 than the others, was dipped up about a mile from the Jordan, im- 

 mediately after the heavy autumnal rains. It will be noticed 

 also, that in that case the amount of salts, which, supposed in a 

 dry state, are usually equal to one fourth the weight of the water 

 containing them, is for the same reason very much reduced. 



The density of the water was very strikingly illustrated upon 

 our bathing in the sea. We were a party of thirty-five ; nine of 

 whom bathed. Two had never before been able to swim ; thei'e 

 however, they floated like corks. Indeed, had the water been 

 frozen to the bottom, it could not have borne us up more efiec- 



Yale College Laboratory, Jan. 6, 1845 



In order to afford a comparison with a 

 wood adds, from Robinson's admirable " 

 the results of four of the most accurate, 



few of the former experiments, Mr. Sher- 

 Researches on Palestine, (Vol. II, p. 348,) 

 made at different times, viz. 



100. 



100- 



100- 



100. 



