of sea waters , in different parts of the ocean, &c. 179 
remarkable. The difference of specific gravity between the 
upper and lower strata, at the entrance of the Dardanelles, 
where the depth is very moderate, proved to be nearly as 
1020 is to 1028 ; a very curious result, which gives additional 
plausibility to the hypothesis just mentioned respecting the 
entrance of the Mediterranean. 
Among the specimens of sea water collected by Mr. Ten- 
nant, a small phial of water was found, which had been sent 
him from Persia, by his friend, the unfortunate traveller 
Browne, a short time before he was murdered.* This inte- 
resting specimen was taken from the Lake Ourmia or Urumea,'f 
a small sea situated in the province of Azerbijan in Persia, 
south-west of Tabreez, and at no great distance from the 
Volcanic region of Mount Ararat. This lake is thus de- 
scribed by Kinneir, in his “ Geographical Memoirs of the 
Persian Empire,'* page 155 : “ The Lake Urumea, generally 
believed to be the Spanto of Strabo, and Marcianus of Ptolemy, 
is 80 fursungs, or according to my computation about 300 
miles in circumference. The water is more salt than that of the 
sea, no fish can live in it, and it emits a disagreeable sulphu- 
reous smell. The surface is not however, as has been stated, 
incrusted with salt ; at least it was not so in the month of 
July, when I saw it ; on the contrary, the water was as pel- 
lucid as that of the clearest rivulet.” Such salt lakes, entirely 
unconnected with the ocean, being by no means of frequent 
occurrence, I propose to give, in another part of this paper, 
* I was indebted for this water to my friend Mr. Ware urton, who put it into 
my hands after Mr. Tennant’s death. 
f Called also Lake of Shahee (See Morier’s Second Journey to Persia, page 286). 
