The Corvallis gazette. [volume] (Corvallis, Or.) 1862-1899, 1885-11-27
The Dead Sea.

5ornhfll Magazine.
The dead sea is an old and Gecrepit
salt lake, in a very advanced state of
evaporation. 1t lies several feet below
the level of the Mediterranean. just as
the Caspian les several feet below the
level of the Black Sea; and as in both
cases the surface must once have been
continuous, it is clear that the water
of either sheet must have dried up to
a very considerable extent. But while
the Caspian has shrunk only to eighty
five feet below the Black Sea, the Dead
sea has shrunk to the enormous depth
of |. 1892 feet below the Mediterranean.
Every now and then some enterprsing
De Lesseps or other proposes to dig
canal from the Mediterranean to the
Dead Sea, and so re-establish the old
high level. The effect of this very rev.
olutionary proceeding would be to
flood the entire Jordan valley, connect
the Sea of Galilee with the Dead sea,
and play the dickens generally with
Scripture geography, to the infinite
delight of Sunday-school classes. Now,
when the dead sea first began its inde-
pendent career as separate sheet OF
water on its own account, it no doubt
occupied the whole bed of this imagin-
ary engineers lake-spreading, if not
from Dan to Beersheba, at any rate
from Dan to Edom, or. in other words,
along the whole Jordan valley from
the sea of Galilee and even the waters
of Merom to the southern desert. The
modern dead sea is the last shrunken
relic of such a cons;dei able ancient
lake. Its waters a'e now so very con-
centrated and SO very nasty that no
f1sh Of hav ca1f a | M r,
consent to live in hem, and SO bouy
ant that a man can not drown himself,
even if he tres, because the sea is sat
urated with salt of various sorts till it
has become u kind of soup or porridge,
in which swimmer floats, will he,
Mill he.
The waters of the Dead Sea are thus
in the condition of having already de-
posted almost all their gypsum, as
well as the greater part OF the salt they
originally contained. They are, in
fact, much like sea water which has
the state of a thick, salty liquid, and
though most of the salt is now already
deposited in deep layer on the bot
tom, enough still remains in solut on
to make the Dead sea infinitely salter
Gudu luc SCACl ti oCCitl. n oAiO Se'AS
time, there are good many other
things in solution IN sea water besides
gypsum and common salt; such as
chloride of magnesium sulphate OF
potassium, and other interesting SUBJ
stances with pretty chemical names.
well calculated to endear them at first
sight to the sent mental affections OF
the general public. These other by
kcontents of the water are often still
longer in gett ng deposited than COM
mon salt; and ow nc to Their intermix-
tule in a very conoe. trated form with
the mother liquid in the Dead Sea, the
water of that e aporating lake is not
only salt. but al Shiny and fetid to
The last degree, its taste icing accu-
rately des :ribed as half brine, half ram
cid o |. Indeed, the salt has been SO
far prec:pjtated alread.- that there is
now five tim s a' much chlor de of
magnesium left in the water as there
is common salt by tie way, it is
lucky tn ng for us that these various
soluble m nerals are cf such constitu-
ton as to be thrown down Sc arately
at different stages of concentrat on in
the evaporating liquid, tor if it were
otherwise, they would all get depos ted
together, and we should lind gypsum@
salt and other chlorides and sulphates.
absolutely useless for any practical hu'
man purpose.