ASPHALTITES, or Lake of Bitumen, so called from the bitumen which floats upon its surface, and equally well known under the name of the Dead Sea, a name associated with many fables, and derived from a long standing belief that no creature could live in its waters, or within the reach of its pestiferous exhalations.

# Very different accounts have been given of the dimensions and other properties of this lake, by the ancient writers Diodorus, Pliny, Strabo, and Josephus. These accounts have, however, been corrected by modern travellers, although, from the difficulty of approaching it, their information is not so full or accurate as might be desired. Pliny estimates it to be 100 miles in length by 25 in breadth. Josephus reckons the length, from the mouth of the Jordan to the town of Segor, 66 miles, and the breadth 15 miles. This agrees with the estimate of modern travellers, which is 60 or 70 miles in length and from 10 to 20 in breadth. Carne, in his Letters from the East, estimates the length at 60 miles, and the breadth at from 8 to 10. It is about 180 miles in circuit. In form it is curved like a bow, and placed between two ranges of mountains, bold and craggy, and of the most majestic appearance, by which it is sheltered, so that when the wind is blowing all around it is perfectly calm like a sheet of lead. But the grandeur of its features is blended with an air of sadness and desolation, and all travellers have been struck with the death-like stillness of its waters, which seem to accord well with its mysterious character and name. This lake has been seldom visited, owing to the wild Arabs who inhabit the country, and who rob and murder without mercy the defenceless traveller. Mr Buckingham, who had only a distant view of it, mentions that the inhabitants who live within 15 miles distance of its shores have no information respecting it, and believe in all the wonderful tales and superstitions which are circulated of its marvellous properties. It was since visited by Mr Carne, whose Letters contain a lively picture of eastern scenery and manners; and his representation of the death-like stillness of this lake and the adjacent country agrees with that of all former travellers. “There was not,” he observes, when he visited it, “a breath of wind; and the waters lay dead on the shore. Whoever has seen the Dead Sea will have its aspect impressed on his memory. It is in truth a gloomy and fearful spectacle. The precipices in general descend abruptly into the lake, and on account of their height it is seldom agitated by the winds. Its shores are not visited by any footstep save that of the wild Arab, and he holds it in superstitious dread. On some parts of the rocks there is a thick sulphureous incrustation, which appears foreign to their substance; and in their steep descents there are several deep caverns, where the benighted Bedouin sometimes finds a home.” The same writer observes, that though the sun shone full on the bosom of the lake, and though it had the appearance of a plain of burnished gold, yet “the sadness of the grave was on it and around it, and the silence also. However vivid the feelings are on arriving on its shores, they subside after a time into languor and uneasiness; and you long, if it were possible, to see a tempest wake on its bosom, to give sound and life to the scene.”^[1. Letters from the East, by J. Came. ]

The lake Asphaltites receives the waters of the river Jordan, and other brooks and springs from the adjacent mountains, yet never overflows, though it has no visible outlet for those copious Supplies. This fact seems to have embarrassed some naturalists, who, in order to account for it, have had recourse to the hypothesis of a secret communication with the Mediterranean. But it has been demonstrated by accurate calculation, that evaporation[7:3:704] is more than sufficient to carry off the waters brought by the river. Under the influence of a dry and hot climate, it is in fact very considerable, and frequently becomes sensible to the eye by the fogs with which the lake is covered at the rising of the sun, and which are afterwards dispersed by the heat. To the north it has the plain of Jericho, and to the south extends, on both sides of the Jordan, the great plain, which is open, and stretches beyond the reach of the eye. It is this plain of which, according to Mr Buckingham, Josephus gives so accurate a description.

This lake is supposed to occupy the site of the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah, destroyed by fire, as is recorded in the sacred volume, for their unparalleled iniquities; and the strange properties ascribed to its waters, and other marvellous stories connected with it, seem to have a reference to this awful tradition. It was at one time supposed that no living creature could exist in its waters—that they exhaled such a poisonous effluvia that the birds of the air died in attempting to fly over it. The apples that were said to grow on its shores, fair without, but full of ashes and bitterness within, were also supposed to contain some moral or illustration of its ancient story; and it was affirmed that the ruins of the five cities which were destroyed by fire were still seen at the bottom of the lake in clear weather. Josephus mentions that a constant smoke was seen to arise from its surface. Almost all these stories have been exploded by the testimony of modern travellers, although some of them have an obvious foundation in the physical properties of the waters. Their taste is remarkably bitter, saline, and pungent; and hence has arisen the notion of its pestiferous vapours and deadly influence. We are told even by Volney, that its waters are destructive both of animal and vegetable life; but he denies that its vapours have any deadly quality, for swallows, he says, are often seen to skim its surface without injury. Μ. de Chateaubriand, who visited its shores in 1807, with an imagination abundantly disposed to the marvellous, has given the first decided testimony that it abounds in fish. He reached the lake when it was already dark, and passed the night among some Arab tents. “About midnight,” says he, “I heard a noise upon the lake, and was told by the Bethlehemites who accompanied me, that it proceeded from legions of small fish which come out and leap about on the shore.” This interesting traveller speaks in the following terms of its saline properties :—“The first thing I did on alighting was to walk into the lake up to my knees, and to taste the water. I found it impossible to keep it in my mouth. It far exceeds that of the sea in saltness, and produces upon the lips the effect of a strong solution of alum. Before my boots were completely dry, they were covered with salt; our clothes, our hats, our hands, were in less than three hours impregnated with this mineral.”

The common story, that nothing will sink in it, is to be ascribed to the extraordinary density of its waters. Bodies follow the general law, and sink or swim, according to the proportion of their gravity to the gravity of the water of the lake; but its specific gravity is such that a man may lie upon its surface motionless, without danger of sinking. This effect was experienced by Pococke, and by a Scotish traveller, Mr Gordon of Clunie, who also bathed in it. This gentleman brought home a phial of its water, and Dr Marcet found its specific gravity to be 1’211; “a degree of density,” says he, “not to be met with in any other natural water.” Dr Marcet was employed to analyse Mr Gordon’s specimen, which that gentleman had presented to Sir Joseph Bankes in 1807; and the whole process, with its results, is detailed in the Philosophical Transactions for that year. It was found that 100 grains of the water contains the following substances, in the under-mentioned proportions :—

Grains.

Muriate of lime 3∙920

Muriate of magnesia 10∙246

Muriate of soda 10∙360

Sulphate of lime 0∙054

24∙580

The water of the Dead Sea had been previously analysed by Messrs Macquer, Lavoisier, and Sage, of whose experiments an account was published in the Mémoires de l’Academie des Sciences for the year 1778. Their analysis afforded results greatly different from those obtained by Dr Marcet, which that gentleman ascribes to some inaccuracy in their mode of operating. We find, however, that the processes employed by Dr Marcet have been called in question, and the accuracy of his proportions denied, by a very skilful chemist, who subsequently instituted an analysis of the Dead Sea water. We allude to Klaproth, who procured a specimen brought from the East by the Abbé Mariti, and whose analysis offered the following proportions :—

Muriate of magnesia 24∙20

Muriate of lime 10∙60

Muriate of soda 7∙80

42∙60

Water 57∙40

100

Klaproth also found the specific gravity to be 1∙245 instead of 1∙211; agreeing in this respect more nearly with Macquer and Lavoisier, who stated it at 1*240. The specific gravity of Dr Marcet’s specimen may, however, have been less from its having been taken from the lake not far from the influx of the Jordan, on which account it might be somewhat diluted.

Dr Clarke mentions that the inhabitants of the country still regard the Dead Sea with feelings of terror. This may be owing to the tradition that its waters cover the engulphed cities of Sodom and Gomorrah, or to the ideas entertained of the peculiar insalubrity of its exhalations. It is much to be regretted that this traveller was prevented by the Arabs, who infested the neighbourhood, from exploring the lake, which he only saw at some distance; as, with his attainments, he could not have failed to gather some interesting information regarding its natural history. Though Μ. de Chateaubriand, a few years after, succeeded in reaching its banks, he could only, owing to the same cause, remain a few hours; and besides, however capable of interesting his readers, he was not so well qualified for accurate or scientific observation. While some of his facts run counter to the ancient fables, others seem calculated to add to the list; as, when he discovers a resemblance between the noise of its waves and the stifled clamours of the people whom they engulfed. (See Chateaubriand’s Travels in Greece, Palestine, Egypt, and Barbary ; Dr Clarke’s Travels in Greece, Egypt, and the Holy Land ; Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London for 1807; Klaproth, Beitrage zur Chemischen Kenntnis der Mineral Körper, book V. p. 185, Berlin, 1810; Buckingham’s Travels in Palestine; Carne’s Letters from the East.') '