‘A JOURNEY IN THE EAST’ 355 
vultures were sitting on the narrow ledges of the rocks and 
the sharp parallel ridges that here run down from the moun- 
tain and are separated from each other by ravines. After 
about an hour we reached the foot of the mountain, and all 
at once found ourselves amongst thick bushes and on sandy 
ground, capital for riding over. Dense thickets alternated 
with grassy flats, which we crossed at full gallop, and after 
descending the bed of a now dried-up torrent we rode 
through tall reeds, long grass, and high bushes to the flat 
shores of the Dead Sea. 
Every step that the horses made sounded as if they were 
breaking through a crust of frozen snow, for here the sand, 
and also the bits of wood which had been washed up, are all 
coated with saltpetre. The Bahr-Lut (Lot’s Lake), as the 
Dead Sea is called by the Arabs, is a wonderful mountain 
lake—large, deep blue, and fine in form. It is bounded on 
the east by the rugged grey-green hills with which we had 
become acquainted during the last few days, and on the west 
by really lofty mountains with whitish-grey cliffs. The 
water itself isa thick heavy solution, so strongly saturated 
with mineral matter that it is impossible for any living thing 
to exist in it, and the lake is truly dead. Bathing, which 
some of the gentlemen now indulged in, was unattended by 
any risk of drowning, for its waters are so buoyant that one 
cannot sink, but, on the other hand, they leave a thick deposit 
of salt on the skin that is by no means pleasant. 
The air of the Dead Sea, like that of deep mines, is as 
heavy as lead, and has an enervating influence on every one. 
This is caused by its low level, for it lies 394 metres below 
the Mediterranean. 
We rode along it a little way close to the shore, and 
then turned northwards across some loamy and sandy 
flats. To our right was a plain, extending to the thickly 
overgrown meadows of the Jordan, to our left a slope of 
242 
