JERUSALEM TO BETHLEHEM. 40o 
Dead Sea which were found in the writings of ^^x ^* 
the Greeks and Romans. According to them, no * ^ — ' 
animal found in other waters existed here. 
Among the numerous assertors of the remark- 
able specific gravity of the water, almost every 
antient author may be included, by whom the lake 
has been mentioned : this is noticed by Aristotle^: 
and it can hardly be doubted but that their 
testimonies have some foundation in reality. 
Mauvdrell, AYTOOTHI, as he is emphatically 
styled by Reland^^, is entitled to implicit confi- 
dence in this, as in all other matters where he 
speaks from his own practical observation. 
** Being willing," says he ", *' to make an expe- 
riment of its strength, I went into it, and found 
it bore up my body in swimming with an uncom- 
mon force. But as for that relation of some 
authors, that men wading into it were buoyed 
up to the top as soon as they go as deep as the 
navel, I found it, upon experiment, not true." 
There is scarcely a single antient geographer 
(9) E/ S' IVt/v, Sitrrfio fiu^oXoyiZet rr-zt, iv TlaXccifTi-jfi rtiavrn ?.ifivti, tig ^y 
say T/f i/ilidXXfi futoyiirai atfaa><jrov tJ v^oZ,vyiov iTi'TkiTv, xai ou KCCTCtouiirfcci Kara, 
rev u^aro;, fiu^ruotiv av e/'sj <rt>Ts s/gsi^jw/;. '^Si autem, uti qtiidam narrant, 
in Palastind ejusmodi Incus sit, in quern si quis hominem aut jumentum' 
Kgatum injecerit, svpernatet nee mergatvr, id ea qua diximvs confir- 
mahit." Aristol. \\h. ii. cap. 3. Meteorulosicoriim. Paris, l6i'9. 
(10) Pal. Illust. toil). I. p. 244. Trrtj. Bot. 1714. 
{11) MaundrelVs Jouni. from ///«/?. to Jems. p. 84. Or/. 1721. 
