524 
CANALS TO THE DEAD SEA. 
Canals to the Dead Sea. 
The project of Captain Allen for opening a new route to 
India by cuts between the Mediterranean and the Dead Sea, 
and between the Dead Sea and the Red Sea, presents many 
interesting considerations.* The hypsometrical observations 
of Bertou, Roth, and others, render it highly probable, if 
not certain, that the watershed in the Wadi-el-Araba between 
the Dead Sea and the Red Sea is not less than three hundred 
feet above the mean level of the latter, and if this is so, the 
execution of a canal from the one sea to the other is quite out 
of the question. But the summit level between the Mediter¬ 
ranean and the Jordan, near Jezreel, is believed to be little, if 
at all, more than one hundred feet above the sea, and the dis¬ 
tance is so short that the cutting of a channel through the 
dividing ridge would probably be found by no means an im¬ 
practicable undertaking. Although, therefore, we have no 
reason to believe it possible to open a navigable channel to the 
east by way of the Dead Sea, there is not much doubt that the 
basin of the latter might be made accessible from the Mediter¬ 
ranean. 
The level of the Dead Sea lies 1,316.7 feet below that of 
the ocean. It is bounded east and west by mountain ridges, 
rising to the height of from 2,000 to 4,000 feet above the 
ocean. From its southern end, a depression called the Wadi- 
el-Araba extends to the Gulf of Akaba, the eastern arm of the 
Red Sea. The Jordan empties into its northern extremity, 
after having passed through the Lake of Tiberias at an eleva¬ 
tion of 663.4 feet above the Dead Sea, or 653.3 below the Med¬ 
iterranean, and drains a considerable valley north of the lake, 
as well as the plain of Jericho, which lies between the lake 
and the sea. If the waters of the Mediterranean were admitted 
waste—a new Labrador—would become a worthless appendage of some 
clime more favored by nature.”— Haetwig, Das Leben cles Meeres , p. 70. 
* I know nothing of Captain Allen’s work but its title and its subject. 
Very probably he may have anticipated many of the following speculations, 
and thrown light on points upon which I am ignorant. 
