On the Valley of the Joi'dan and the Dead Sea. 9 



At the southwest corner of the lake occurs a large promontory 

 of fossil salt, overlaid with marl and earth, down which little rills 

 constantly trickling, give to the lake its highly saline character. 

 A narrow shelf of land intervenes between the water and the base 

 of the western mountains, cut off in three points by the advanced 

 cliffs. On the south, the valley again begins, or rather is prolonged 

 southwards by a marsh, which at length gives place to a bed of 

 an indurated nitrous character, mixed with marl, pieces of red 

 sandstone and porphyry. 



The northern shore, which I visited, is a sand beach, sloping 

 gently down from the water's edge ; a line of sand running back 

 (at that time about two feet) covered with weeds and drift-wood, 

 indicating the high-water mark. The view from this shore down 

 the lake, sunk between its precipitous walls, is one of appalling 

 sublimity. There it lies motionless and dark, with no voice, no 

 pulse of life around or within it. No fish inhales its waters, no 

 snail crawls along its shores, no trace of aught, human or animate, 

 is any where to be seen. 



In the course of a wide range of travel through the greater part 

 of Europe, a portion of Africa and Asia, and my own country, I 

 have witnessed nothing whether of the physical or moral sublime, 

 so sternly impressive. The wildest districts of Switzerland, Scot- 

 land and the Tyrol, and the sternest features of northern Greece 

 and Asia Minor, are tame when compared with the Dead Sea. 



(3.) The water is of a dull green color, though highly trans- 

 parent, so that the eye traces the pebbles which cover the bot- 

 tom, and are very various in color, for a great distance. Among 

 them those of fetid limestone predominate ; they are bitumin- 

 ous, and emit a strong odor when rubbed against a woolen 

 coat. In some cases the bitumen has invested other stones, and 

 formed a coating so tenacious that it is impossible to detach it 

 mechanically. As no springs of petroleum or pitch have been 

 discovered along the shore, we can only infer the conditions un- 

 der which the bitumen is found at the bottom by its appearance 

 when thrown ashore. Judging from the fracture and the vitreous 

 texture throughout, we are warranted in concluding that it first 

 appears in a fluid state like tar, and afterwards cools down under 

 the pressure of the water. 



(4.) There is no outlet to the sea: so that the whole body of 

 water brought into it by the Jordan, the six streams upon the east 



Vol. xLviii, No. 1.— Oct. -Dec. 1844. 2 



