406 THE HOLY LAND. 
CHAP, who has not mentioned somethmg concerning 
this inland sea. Josephus, Julius jifricanm, and 
Pausanias, describe it from their own ocular 
evidence. The first of these often introduces 
allusions to it, under the appellation of Lahe 
Asphaltites. Its water, although limpid, like 
that of the Sea of Galilee, and resulting from the 
same river, the Jordan^ instead of being, as that 
is, sweet and salutary, is in the highest degree 
salt, bitter, and nauseous ' . Its length, accord- 
ing to Diodorus Siculus, is above seventy-two 
English miles, and its breadth nearly nineteen^. 
Julius AfricaTLUs mentions the abundance of 
halsam found near its shores ^ The observations 
of Pausanias* contain merely a repetition of 
remarks already introduced. 
The temptation to visit Bethlehem was so great, 
that, notwithstanding the increasing alarms con- 
cerning the ravages of the plague as we drew 
near the town, we resolved, at all events, to 
(1) MaundrelV s Journ. from Alep. to Jerus. p. 84. Oxf. 1721. 
(2) Vid. Dind, S.f. lib. xix. AmstAIAQ. Reckoning the stadium as 
being equal to our furlong'. 
(3) "Eo-t; Ss 5rag' auTri va.iji.'XoXu roZ liaX<ra/iw <pur'o!>. " Circumquaque 
magna balsami copia est." Jul. African, de Lacti Asphalt. Vid. Rel. 
Pal. III. lib. i. c. 38. 
(4) Pausanias, lib. v. cap. 7. Lips. 1696. 
