LAKE ASPIIALTITES. 
659 
Daniel, abbot of St. Saba, states on bis authority, that “ the Dead 
Sea, at its extremity, is separated as it were into, two parts, and that 
there is a way by which you may walk across it, being only mid- 
leg deep, at least in summer ; that there the lake rises, and bounds 
another small lake of a circular or rather oval figure, surrounded with 
plains and mountains, and that the neighbouring country is peopled 
by innumerable Arabs.” 
M. Seetzen, in the year 1805-6, passed round the southern extre - ' 
mity of this lake ; but a short account only of his route, (a quarto of 
forty-seven pages of correspondence with M. de Zach, printed by the 
Palestine Association in 1810,) has yet appeared. M. Burckhardt 
was unable to reach its borders. He was informed, in its neighbour- 
hood, that no visible increase of its waters takes place during winter, 
as the greater part of the torrents which descend from the eastern 
mountains are lost in the sandy plain before they reach the lake. 
Some Arabs assured him that there w'ere spots in a ford some 
miles north of Szaffye, the extreme southern point of the lake, in 
W'hich the water is quite hot, and the bottom of red earth. This ford 
may be crossed in three hours and a half; the water here is generally 
not more than two feet deep, and it is probable there are hot springs 
in the bottom. It is so strongly impregnated with salt, that the skin 
peels oflf the legs of those w'ho wade across it. Besides the river 
Jordan, the lake receives six lesser streams, and it has no visible 
outlet ; and as there is no apparent increase of its waters, it was long 
conjectured that a vent w^as found through subterraneous chanrjels. 
But evaporation alone is sufficient to account for the phenomenon. 
Most of the marvellous properties of this lake are now exploded. 
It was once considered an Avernus; but birds are observed to fly over 
it uninjured. No living creature was supposed to exist in its waters; 
but the exuviae of fish are often cast upon its shores. The apples of 
Sodom, which grew on its banks, have been w'onderfully described 
both by Josephus and Tacitus, (History, v. 8.) Later writers have also 
mentioned them in similar terms, among w'hom we may cite the vera- 
cious Maudeviile : “ And there besydan growen trees, that baren fulle 
faire apples, and faire of colour to beholden, but whoso breketh 
them, or cuttethe them in two, he shalle fynde within them coles 
and cyndres.” Milton has made a fine use of this legend, after the 
transformation of Satan and is bad angels into serpents, when, they 
are tempted to eat the apples growing on trees resembling the forbid- 
den tree of knowledge : 
— L_ Greedily they pluck’d 
The fruitage fair to sight, like that which grew 
Near that bituminous lake where Sodom flam’d ; 
This, more delusive, not the touch, but taste 
Deceiv’d ; they, fondly thinking to allay 
Their appetite with gust, instead of fruit 
Chew’d bitter ashes, 
Paradise Last, book x. 1. 560. 
Reland, Neret, and Maundrell reject the whole account as a fable; 
but Hasselquist, the botanist, asserts the apples of Sodom to be the 
