The Athens post. [volume] (Athens, Tenn.) 1848-1917, 1858-03-26
rHE DEAD SEA.


border Of the Holy Land, is not named in the
New Testament, and is seldom named in the
Old Testament II is there called the Sail
Sea. the Sea Of Sodom, and the East Sea; and
by Josephus and classic wrisers, Lake Asphal
tiles, from the asphaltum Of bitumen it pro-
duces. Its ordinary modern name, The Dead
SEA, is highly appropriate for these dreary
and acrid waters, in which no fish can live,
and which, having no outlet, swallows up
rivers and living springs on every side.
The Jordon on the north pours in about
100000 tuns of water daily. Midway on
the eastern side is the mouth Of the ancient
Arnon; and north and south of this the Eur
kn, the outlet of the warm springs Of Callirr-
hoe, and the brook Zered The brook Kid
ron and several copious springs and winter
torrents enter il on the west; streams from
the souih also empty 10 this sea. OF this
vast supply Of water,a part may be absorbed
in the earth, bat most Of il is evaporated by
the intense heat that here prevails.
There are many wonderful facts respecting
this sea; and these, half known and surper-
stitiousy exaggerated, have made it an object
Of terror, as if still under the curse Of God.
Il has been little visited in modern times, un-
Ill our own day. Costigan, an Irish traveller,
in II a5, spent eight days upon the sea, and
died there Of a fever. In ls47, Lieut.. Molly.
neux spent day on the sea, caught the fe-
yer, and died soon after at Jaffa. But in the
same year Lieut.. Lynch of the U. $. Navy,
with two metallic boats, descended the Jordan,
and spent three weeks on the sea, thoroughly
exploring it. The "fre and smoke" of an
cient annalists were traced 10 natural causes;
the great evaporation covering the sea with
vapor like the smoke Of burning sulphur,
while the surface was at times 'one wide
sheet Of phosphorescent foam, and the waves
as they broke on the shore threw sepul.
chral light upon the dead bushes and frag.
ments Of rock Iosephus aud others speak
Of "fruits which have color as If they were
fit to be eaten;. but IL you pluck them they
dissolve into smoke and ashes" These ia.
nous "apples of Sodom" are found to be the
osher Of the Arabs, resembling large smooth
orange; il is fair to the eye, but being pressed
it explodes with puff, and is found to have
contained nothing but air, and few shreds
and seeds.
The Dead Sea lies in a deep cadron more
than 1000 fee, below the level of the Medt.
erranean-the limestone cliffs which enclose
II from the verge Of a table-Iand 1000 or
1900 feet above the sen, rising still higher
towards Jerusalem and Hebron on the west,
and towards the mountains Of sSioab ON the
east. The shores of the sea are desolate, ex-
cept where stream or spring forms an oasis
Of green canes. low trees, and shrubbery."---
the water looks remarkably clear and pure
says one traveller, but on taking it into my
mouth found it bitter, think beyond any
thing evsr tasted. My clothes were wet by
the waves, and as they dried, found them
covered with salt" 1t produces an evapora-
ton one-fourth its weight Of solid salts. 1t is
far more dense and heavy than sea- water
DR.. Robinson, though not able to swim else
where, could stand, lie, sit, or swim in it,
Another traveller could not swim, his feet
being thrown high and dry out of the lake at
every stroke; while horses driven in fioated
upon the surface on their sides, snorting with
fear. Lieut.. Lynch entered the sea when
rough with high wind, and says, at seemed
as if the bows, so dense was the water, were
encountering the sledge hammers Of the tt
tans rather than the opposing waves of an
angry sea-
The sea s divided into two equal parts by
a peninsula reaching two thirds across from
the eastern shore. The part thus shut off at
the south is perhaps one.fourth of the whole
lake, which is about forty miles long, and
eight or nine wide. The main sea is 1000 to
1900 feet deep, the bottom being sprinkled
with rectangular crystals of salt. Carefully
sounding across this sea in every direction,
Lieut.. Lynch reports a deeper ravine in its
bed, continuous with the bed Of the Jordan.
The who;e chasm, extending from the sea of
Galilee to the Red sea 100 miles south Of the
Dead sea, bears marks OF volcanic action, and
would seem to have been sunk to its present
level by commissions of the earth, which were
most violent at the southern end Of the Dead
Sea.
This portion Of the sen Is but about thir-
teen feet deep; its bottom and shores are cov-
cred with deep slime, reminding one Of the
"slme- pits" of this region in Abraham's day.
An occasional earthquake dislodges bitumen
from the bottom, and il floats in Jumps to the
shores, which are also incrnsted with salt and
sulphur. This part Of the sea is supposed to
cover the "vale of Sddim," Gen. xiv. 3, the
site of the old cities Of the plain destroyed
by fire and birthstone in the time Of Lot
Zonr, in ~hch Lot first found refuge, is .rac-
ed in ruins on the eastern shore. This is the
sea Of the plain in Deut. iii. II. On its aes-
tern coast is lofty and barren summit, on
the base of which rises pillar Of salt forty
feet high, with an oval pedestal fifty feet
above the sea level. The waters Of this
mountain are strongly saturated with salt;
and those of the sea itself. being subjected tc