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



who caused a boat to be transported from the Mediterranean across 

 the country and launched — his enterprise with a sole Arab ser- 

 vant — his three days' exploration — his death from exposure and 

 want of fresh water, before he could make known his discoveries, 

 are pathetically told by Stephens. From what I could learn how- 

 ever, at Jerusalem, Costigan was as destitute of scientific and in- 

 strumental knowledge as he proved to be of ordinary prudence ; 

 and had he lived would probably have revealed facts of but little 

 value. That the exhalations from the lake are too pestiferous to 

 admit of the necessary exposure for its survey, will scarcely be 

 maintained ;* and while the other obstacles arising from the hos- 

 tile character of the Bedawins, the difficulty of transporting a boat 

 to the shore, the want of provisions, water, &c. are too slight to be 

 entertained by any enterprising traveller, it is to be hoped that an 

 exploration, where important discoveries are sure to follow the 

 experiment, will not long be deferred. At present therefore, our 

 knowledge is made up of partial observations and experiments, the 

 most important of which I shall here detail, in order to embody 

 into one view, the leading features of this extraordinary region. 



(1.) The lake is about forty miles long and from six to eight 

 miles wide ; a broad peninsula, composed of slate, marl, earth and 

 other matter, broken down from the rocks in the rear or gained 

 apparently from a former overflow of the waters of the lake, pro- 

 jects from the eastern shore on the south and contracts the breadth 

 of the sea to within two miles. South of this the water is very 

 shallow ; so that in midsummer, when in consequence of evap- 

 oration the body of the lake falls from twelve to fifteen feet, this 

 end is left a marsh. 



(2.) The eastern shore consists of almost perpendicular cliffs 

 of limestone rock, from sixteen hundred to twenty-five hundred 

 feet high, running up in ragged splintered points, or advancing 

 out from the main line, standing like massive bastions propping up 

 the gigantic wall in the rear. This range, following nearly a north 

 and south direction, recedes from the southern coast and thus 

 allows access to the peninsula. The west shore, from fourteen 

 hundred to two thousand feet high, is more broken than the east- 

 ern ; but presents several strikingly bold cliffs, beetling over the 

 water and throwing upon it their deep shadows. 



* It was formerly believed that no birds could, or did fly over the lake, but this 

 is not true. The same fact is falsely asserted of Lake Avernus, near Naples. 



