The Naturalist. 



the papyrus-reed attains a height of 12 to 16 feet. Even on the hills, 

 450 feet above the lake, from March 17 to April 5 the mean 

 temperature for 24 hours was 63^ F. In May the average for 24 

 hours was 73^, and for the day only 83^, while the maximum was 90^. 



As we descend the valley of Jordan the climate steadily increases 

 in temperature, till we reach the lowest depression (nearly 1300 feet) 

 at the Dead Sea. Here in January the lowest mean temperature of 

 the night was 47^, and of the day 67*^. In April the temperature in the 

 shade at noon was 105^, and in summer the heat is so intense that 

 even naked Arabs of the Safieh are compelled to leave the valley for 

 the highlands. In October, when I slept two nights in the open at 

 Engedi, the thermometer stood at 70^ to 72^ at midnight, and over 

 90^ in the day. 



Very little rain falls here, but the evaporation of the Dead Sea 

 keeps the atmosphere always moist. 



The oases — five or six in number on the shores of this lake— are 

 quite tropical in character. At Engedi the thickets are composed of 

 the Lawsonia inermis, the henna of India, and the camphire of the 

 Book of Canticles ; the osher tree, the apple of Sodom, {Calotropis 

 jjrocera, N.O. Asclepiadaceoe) , Acacia vera, with its gum and its 

 parasitic Loranthus ; Moringa aptera, Eloeagnus {oleaster), Astragalus, 

 the Salvadora persica, and many other products of the torrid zone. 



The birds, too, of these oases are peculiar, many of them not hitherto 

 found in any other part of the world — others Indian, or from Equa- 

 torial Africa. " Besides the common turtle-dove which visits all 

 Syria in summer, another large species, the Indian collared turtle 

 (Turtur risorius) lives here through the year. A night-jar, a grakle, 

 and a sparrow, not found elsewhere, live here permanently ; and a 

 Nectarinia — a minute sun-bird resembling a humming-bird— ^ flits 

 among the shrubs in great numbers. The butterflies, too, are different 

 here, but are allied to species found no nearer than Nubia and 

 Abyssinia, and some East Indian " (Tristram). 



Among mammals (which are not abundant, but characteristic), 

 those we meet with most frequently in this district are the Beden or 

 Syrian ibex (Capita Beden), the Hyrax Syriacus, or coney ; the 

 Hycena striata, which is common to all Syria, but its former frequency 

 here is recorded in the name of the valley of Zeboim {i.e. of Hyoenas); 

 the Jerboas, two species of Dipus, and the porcupine. 



No fish can live in the Dead Sea, but the little streams which rise 

 in the rocky cliffs and run a shdrt course of 300 yards to a quarter of 



