I 
G5o l.AKi: ASt^lI ALTITfiS. 
of the vHie-clrcssers, who have succeeded the Sybils and the Cim- 
merians in the possession of the temple, most fully testify. Boccacio 
relates, that, during his residence at the Neapolitan court, the surface 
of this lake was suddenly covered with dead fish, black and singed, 
as if killed by some subaqueous eruption of fire. At present this lake 
abounds with tench, the Lucrine with eels. 
The changes of fortune in these lakes is singular. In the splendid 
days of imperial Rome, the Lucrine was the chosen spot for the bril- 
liant parties of pleasure of a voluptuous court; now, a slimy bed of 
rushes covers the scattered pools of this once beautifid sheet of 
water, while the once dusky Avernus is clear and serene, offering a 
most alluring surface and charming scene for similar amusements. 
Opposite to the temple is a cave, usually styled the Sybil’s grotto; 
but apparently more likely to have been the mouth of communication 
between Cuana and Avernus, than the abode of a prophetess, espe- 
cially as the Sybil is positively said by historians to have dwelt in a 
cavern under the Cuanean citadel. 
Lake Aspu altites. 
This is a lake of Judaea. Almost all the ancient geographers 
have described this lake ; Josephus, Julius Africaniis, and Pausanias,j 
notice it, after personal visits. Josephus makes it fhe northern boun- 
dary of Canaan, {Ant. ix.) and assigns its distance from Jerusalem to 
be three hundred stadia, (xv. 9.) He speaks of its water as salt, and 
of its shores as barren ; that heavy bodies would float upon the 
waters, and that men thrown into them, though hound, would swim. 
He believes the Pentapolis of Sodom and Gomorrah not to have been 
sunk beneath the site of this lake, but to have been overwhelmed by 
fire in the neighbourhood of it; and he mentions their shadows as yet 
visible . — JDe Bello, v. 
Julius Africanus states, that all living bodies swim, and all dead 
bodies sink in this lake ; that burning torches, in like manner, float, 
and when extinct fall to the bottom. Pausanias confirms the first 
of these assertions, and remarks, that the Dead Sea, as he calls it, 
is affected in every respect dift’erently from other waters, (v. 7.) 
The scriptural account of the overthrow of the offending cities, in 
no way leads to a belief of their submersion in w'ater. On the con- 
trary, every word in every passage of the Old or New Testament, 
allusive to this terrific event, speaks of fire as the agent. Yet Maun- 
dreil mentions persons of credibility, who told him that they had seen 
columns and ruins of buildings under the surface of the lake ; and 
DTIerhelot cites Daowra as one of the five cities, the remains of 
which are still visible . — Bibliotheque Orientale, ad verb. 
The lake is at present called Almotanah and Bahret Lout by the 
Arabs, and Ula Deguisi by the Turks. Its water is much salte.r than 
that of the ocean, -and its specific gravity in 12.11, according to 
Malte Brun, that of fresh water being 1000. Its figure approaches to 
a semicircle, the convexity of which is to the west. It is said to be 
twenty-four leagues in length, and four or five in extreme breadth. 
Hitherto only one European has succeeded in making the circuit of 
it; and Nau, who in his travels has recorded this expedition of 
