387 
depression of the water, each stage apparently caused by 
some great convulsion. 
37. A similar phenomenon was observed by Canon Tris- 
tram along the western shore, where he counted “ no less than 
eight low gravel terraces, the ledges of comparatively recent 
beaches, distinctly marked. The highest of these was 44 feet 
above the present sea-level.” It would seem, in fact, that at 
some very remote period the whole valley, from the base of 
Hermon to the water-shed near Kadesh, on the borders of 
Edom, was the bed of a lake. While it remained in that 
state, those deposits were formed which now constitute the 
plain through which the Jordan flows. From some cause 
now unknown, the waters gradually decreased until they were 
reduced to their present level ; leaving along the mountain 
ramparts that hemmed them in on each side distinct traces of 
the several stages in their subsidence. 
38. The water of the Dead Sea is intensely salt and bitter, 
and its specific gravity is consequently very great. It con- 
tains about 26 per cent, of pure salt, yet it is transparent, and 
of a delicate green hue. It is fatal to animal life ; and this 
fact, according to Jerome, was the origin of the name Dead 
Sea. Lying in a deep basin, encompassed by bare white 
cliffs and white plains, exposed during a great part of the year 
to the burning rays of a Syrian sun, without a cloud to dim 
their fiery heat, it is not strange that the shores of the Dead 
Sea should exhibit an almost unexampled sterility and death- 
like solitude ; nor is it strange that in a rude and unscientific 
age the sea should have become the subject of wild and 
wondrous superstitions. The sky over it is brilliant ; the 
colouring of the cliffs and glens along its eastern shore, when 
the last rays of the sun fall on them, is exquisitely beautiful ; 
but, as Mr. Grove well says, “ There is something in the 
prevalent sterility and the dry, burnt look of the shores, the 
overpowering heat, the occasional smell of sulphur, the dreary 
salt marsh at the southern end, and the fringe of dead drift- 
wood round the margin, which must go far to excuse the title 
which so many ages have attached to the lake, and which we 
may be sure it will never lose.” 
The Chairman (J. E. Howard, Esq., F.R.S.).- — I am sure you will all unite 
with me in presenting the cordial thanks of the Institute to the learned traveller 
who has given us so interesting a description of the regions with which 
this paper deals. (Hear, hear.) We are under special obligations to those who 
recall to us facts connected with those varied scenes and countries which the 
sacred Scriptures take us over in their course. (Hear.) As we study these 
scenes, we gradually learn many facts which corroborate the exceeding 
vol. xir. 2 D 
