LAKE AS.fHALTITES. 3?1 
3VC. The atmosphere was remarkably clear and 
’ K *■ " ® none of those clouds of smoke, 
6 Lat ®otne writers, are said to exhale from tire surface 
% ,?Asphaliites, nor from any neighbouring mountain, 
“ling about it was, in the liighest degree, grand and 
j *^csolate, alibougH majestiCj features, ate well 
? Hic. tales related concerning it by the inhabitants 
Wills who ail speak of it with terror, seeming to 
"'adk. yom the narrative of its deceitful allurements and 
Si, I 'iifluence. ‘ EeaufUul ' fruit,' say they, ‘ grows 
Wt gA ^lores, which is no sooner touched, than it becomes 
“i'ter ashes.’ In addition to its physical horrors, 
®-otind is said to bo more perilous, owing to the 
** 1 ) g * ti'ibcs wandering upon the shores of the lake, 
N’elf ''^lier part of the Holy Land. A passion for the 
w^ie thus afSxed, for ages, false characteristics 
Anl(i ^’'thlirnest associations o-f natural scenery in the 
for, although it be now known that the 
this lake, instead of proving destructive of animal 
lA'itisf'? ""‘th myriads of fishes ; that, instead of falling 
1 exhalations, certain birds make it their pecu- 
Akiidg , ’ ^ that shells abound upon its shores; that the 
bk'Abl ' h'uit, containing ashes,’ is as natural and as 
A ijj ® ^ production of nature, as the rest of the vege- 
tk Pfon^ . ; that bodies sink or float in it, according to 
^ti^^r^rtionof their graviiy to the gravity of the water; 
A^t Pours are not more insalubrious than those of any 
Ijptict. that innumerable Arabs people the neighbouring 
'is^> 'totwithstanding all these tacts are now well esta- 
V We r®" the latest aitthors by whom it is mentioned, 
tfyM‘''tt,ttg tlie number, from whose writings some of 
W nave been derived, continue to fill their de- 
imaginary horrors and ideal phantoms,, 
^ttss substantial than lire ‘ black perpen- 
the around it, ‘ cast their lengthened shadows 
^Ve^ raters of the Dead Sea.’ The ancients, as it is 
"'>■ the traveller now alluded to, were much better 
ttt^s so situated, can long continue unexplored, 
knowledge, and the love of havel, have at- 
