Ch. XXII.] SALTNESS OF THE BED SEA. 345 



snow-white salt, the offspring of evaporation." " If," says Mr. Hugh 

 Miller, " we suppose, instead of a barrier of lava, that sand-bars wer* 

 raised by the surf on a flat arenaceous coast during a slow and equable 

 sinking of the surface, the waters of the outer gulf might occasionally 

 topple over the bar, and supply fresh brine when the first stock had been 

 exhausted by evaporation."* 



We may add that the permanent impregnation of the waters of a 

 large shallow basin with salt, beyond the proportion which is usual in 

 the ocean, would cause it to be uninhabitable by mollusks or fish, as is the 

 case in the Dead Sea, and the muriate of soda might remain in excess, 

 even though it were occasionally replenished by irruptions of the sea. 

 Should the saline deposit be eventually submerged, it might, as we have 

 seen from the example of the Runn of Cutch, be covered by a freshwater 

 formation containing fluviatile organic remains ; and in this way the 

 apparent anomaly of beds of sea-salt and clays devoid of marine fossils, 

 alternating with others of freshwater origin, may be explained. 



Dr. G. Buist, in a recent communication to the Bombay Geographical 

 Society (vol. ix.), has asked how it happens that the Red Sea should not 

 exceed the open ocean in saltness, by more than jL-th per cent. The Red 

 Sea receives no supply of water from any quarter save through the 

 Straits of Babelmandeb ; and there is not a single river or rivulet flowing 

 into it from a circuit of 4000 miles of shore. The countries around are 

 all excessively sterile and arid, and composed, for the most part, of burn- 

 ing deserts. From the ascertained evaporation in the sea itself. Dr. 

 Buist computes that nearly 8 feet of pure water must be carried off" from 

 the whole of its surface annually, this being probably equivalent to yo"o^^ 

 part of its whole volume. The Red Sea, therefore, ought to have 1 per 

 cent, added annually to its saline contents ; and as these constitute 4 

 per cent, by weight, or 2^- per cent, in volume of its entire mass, it 

 ought, assuming the average depth to be 800 feet, which is supposed to 

 be far beyond the truth, to have been converted into one solid salt 

 formation in less than 3000 years.f Does the Red Sea receive a supply 

 of water from the ocean, through the narrow Straits of Babelmandeb, 

 sufficient to balance the loss by evaporation ? And is there an under- 

 current of heavier saline water annually flowing outwards ? If not, in 

 what manner is the excess of salt disposed of? An investigation of this 

 subject by our nautical surveyors may perhaps aid the geologist in fram- 

 ing a true theory of the origin of rock-salt. 



On the New Red Sandstone of the valley of the Connecticut River in 

 the United States. 



In a depression of the granitic or hypogene rocks in the States of 

 Massachusetts and Connecticut, strata of red sandstone, shale, and con- 



* Hugh Miller, First Impressions of England, 1847, pp. 183, 214. 

 f Buist, Trans, of Bombay Geograph. See. 1850, vol. ix. p. 38. 



