The Minnesota pioneer. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn. Territory) 1849-1855, 1849-07-26
A Sunday on the Dead Sea.

We take the following vivid sketch of the
heat and desolation of the Dead Sea, and
of It's effects upon the human frame, from,
Lieut. Lynch's forthcoming sc Narrative of
the United States Expedition to the River
Jordon and Dead Sea- We understand
that the work will form very handsome
octave volume, with maps and numerous
plates. We have rarely read more elo
quent and thrilling passage. This work
will become very popuar:-
4 light air from the south induced me to
abandon the awning and sci the sail, to spare
The men from lahorng at the oars. A light
tapping of the ripples at the bow, and a
faint line Of foam and bubbles at her side,
were The only Indications that the boat was
in motion.
The Fanny Skinner was a mile astern,
and all around partook of the stiffness Of
death. The weather was intensely hot, and
even the light air that urged us almost in
sensibly onward had something oppress-
i've in its flaws Of heat. The sky was un-
clouded, save by few faint cirri in the
north sweeping piume-Iike, as if the sun had
consumed the clouds, and the light wind
had dritted their ashes. The glitter from
the water, with its multitude of refectors,
for each ripple with a mirror, contributed
much to our discomfort; yet the water was
not transparent, but of the color of Diluted
absinlhe, or the prevailing tint of Persian
opal The SUI, we felt, was giarns upon
us, but the eye dared not take coguNzance,
for the fierce blaze would have blighted the
powers of vision as Semeie was consumed
hy the unveiled divinity of JOve.
The black chasms and rough peaks, en-
DOssed with grinness. were around and
above us, yelled in transparent mist. ike Wis
IDLE air, that made them seem unreal and,
1900 feet below, our sounding lead had struck
upon the buried plain of Siddim, shrouded
in slime and salt
While busted with such thoughts, my COM
panions had yielded to the oppressive drow-
siness, and now lay before me in every atti-
tude of sleep that had more of stupor in
it than of repose. In the awful aspect
which this sea presented, when we first be-
held it, seemed to read the inscription over
the gates of Dante's Inferno SO Ye who
enter here leave hope behind" Since then,
habituated to mysterious appearances, in a
journey so replete with them, and accus-
toned to scenes of deep thrilling interest at
every step Of our progress those feelings Of
awe had been insensibly lessened or hushed
by deep interest in the Investigations we had
pursued.
But no,c, as sat alone in my wakeiuineSS,
the feeling Of awe returned; and, as looked
upon the sieepers, felt the hair of my flesh
stand up as Jobs did, when spirit passed
| before his face, for TO my disturbed imagIn-
alton, there was something fearful in the eX-
preston of their infamed and swollen Wis
ages. The fierce angel Of disease seemed
lowering over them, and read the lorerun-
ner of ms presence in their flushed and fe-
verish sleep. Some with their bodies bent
and arms dangling over The abandoned oars,
their hands excoriated with the acrid water,
slept profoundly, others with heads thrown
back, and lips cracked and sore, with a scar
let flush on either cheek, seemed overpow-
cred 10y WEAKNESS even in sleep; while some
upon whose faces shone the reflected light
from the water, looked ghastly, and dozed
with nervous twitchiug of the limbs, aud
now and then starting from their sleep, drank
I deeply from heaker and then sank back
again to lethargy. The solitude, the scene
my own thoughts, were too much, felt rs
sat thus, steering the drowsily -moving boat
as if were Charon, fetrying not the souls
but the bodies, of the departed and damned
over some internal lake, and could endure il
no longer; but breaking from my listlessness
ordered the sails TO be furled and the oar:
Reconsideration seemed better than sucf
unnatural stupor.