The plain between the mountains and the month of the Jordan is in general well watered, and covered with luxuriant vegetation and occasional thickets of tama- risk, retem, and acacia. At the ruins of Suweimeh, De Saulcy found a copious hot spring with a ruinous aqueduct (^Voyage en Terre - Saint e, i, 317). Along
the shore pieces of pumice-stone, lava, and bitumen are found imbetlded in the sand and mud as if washed uf) by the waves ; and at this point are more distinct traces of volcanic action than elsewliere around the sea.
One remarkable feature of the northern portion of the eastern heights is a plateau which divides the mountains half-way up, apparently forming a gigantic landing-jilace in the slope, and stretching northward from the Wady Zerka Ma'in. It is very plainly to be seen from Jerusalem, esiiecially at sunset, wlien many of the points of these fascinating mountains come out into unexpected relief. This plateau appears to be on the same general level with a similar plateau on the western side opposite to it, with the top of the rock of Sebbeh, and perhaps with the Mediterranean.
4. The diiiiensivns of the JJead Sea have never yet been taken witli suthcient accuracy. Its longest axis is situated nearly north and south. It lies between 31° 6' 20" and 31° 46' N. lat., nearly; and thus its water sur- face is from N. to S. as nearly as possible 40 geographi- cal, or 46 English miles long. On the other hand, it lies between 35^ 24' and 3.o° 37' E. long., nearly; and its greatest width (some three miles south of Ain-Jidy) is about 9 geographical miles, or 10^ English miles. Tlie ordinary area of the upper portion is about 174 square geographical miles; of the channel, 29; and of the lower portion, hereafter styled the lagoon, 46 — in all, about 250 square geographical miles. It must be re- membered that this varies considerably at different sea- sons of the year, and in different years. When the sea is filled up by winter rains, the flat plain on the south is submerged for several miles. The annual rainfall, too, is not uniform in Palestine. Some years it is more than double what it is in others, and this produces a corresponding effect on the volume of water in the sea, and consequently on its area. At its northern end the lake receives the stream of the Jordan ; on its eastern side the Zerka jNIa'iii (the ancient Callirrhoe, and jios- sibly the more ancient en-Eglaim), the IMojib (the Ar- non of the Bible), and the Beni-Hemad. On tlu' south the Kurahy or el-Ahsy, and on the west that of Ain- Jidy. These are probably all perennial, though varia- ble, streams; but. in addition, the beds of the torrents which lead through the mountains east and west, and over the flat, shelving jdains on both north and south of the lake, show that in the winter a very large quan- tity of water must be poured into it. There are also all along the western side a considerable number of springs, some fresh, some warm, some salt and fetid, which ap- pear to run continually, and all find their way, more or less absorbed b\' the sand and shingle of the beach, into its waters.
The peninsula of Lisan divides the sea into two sec-
eCALC OF CLOCBSPMICW nilES FOR n<IP «ND SECTION
:oQofcc£
Section of the Dead Sea from North to South. 2. Ford of the Jordan j 3. The Frank Mount«in ; 4. Bethlehem ; 5. Hebron ; 6. Ain-Jidy ; 7. Sebbeh (Masada).
SALT SEA
266
SALT SEA
tions : that on the north is an elongated oval in form, while that on the south is almost circular. The nar- rowest part of the channel between the peninsula and the mainland is not much more than two miles across. The northern section is a deep, resjularlj' formed basin, the sides descending steeply and uniformly all round, as well on the north and south as on the east and west. This is one of the most remarkable features of the sea. Lynch ran seven lines of soinidings across it from shore to shore, and found it deepest bet\veen Ain-Terabeh and Wady Mojib, that is, about the centre of the northern section. From this point the depth decreased gradual- ly towards the Lisan on the south and the mouth of the .Jordan on the north. The greatest depth found by Lynch was 1308 feet, but Lieut. IMolyneux records one sounding taken by him as 1350 feet. The deep part of the lake terminates at the peninsula. The greatest depth of the channel between the Lisan and the western shore is only thirteen feet, and no part of the southern section was more than twelve feet in depth (Lynch, Offi- cial Report, p. 43).
It appears that when the water is very low there are two practicable fords from the peninsula to the main- land— one across the narrow channel, and the other run- ning from the isthmus to the northern point of Jebel Usdum (Seetzen, Rdsen, ii, 358; Irby and Mangles, Truceh, p. 140).
5. The depression of the Dead Sea is without a paral- lel in the world. From experiments made by boUing water in 1837, !JIessrs. IMoore and Beke supposed the de- pression to be about 500 feet. In the following year, Kussegger with his barometer made it about 1400 feet. Symonds by trigonometrical survey, in 1841, calculated the depression at 1312 feet: and the level run by Dale, an officer of Lynch's expedition, gave a result of 131(i feet, A still more careful measurement has been recent- ly made bv the corps of English engineers under Capt. Wilson, with the following result: "The levelling from the ^Mediterranean to the Dead Sea has been performed with the greatest possible accuracy, and by two inde- pendent observers, using different instruments, and the result may be relied upon as being absolutel,y true to within three or four inches. The depression of the sur- face on March 12, 18(55, was found to be 1292 feet; but from the line of drift-wood observed along the border of the Dead Sea, it was found that the level of the water at some period of the year^prcbably during the winter freshets— stands two feet six inches higher, which would make the least depression 1289.5 feet. Capt. Wilson also learned, from inquiry among the Bedouin, and from European residents in Palestine, that during tlie early summer the level of the Dead Sea is lower by at least six feet. This would make the greatest depression to be as near as possible 1298 feet. . . . The most recent observation before that now given, by the Due de Luynes and Lieut. Vignes, of the French navy, agrees with our result in a very remarkable manner, consider- ing that the result was obtained by barometric observa- tion, the depression given In- tiiem being 128G feet on June 7, 1864, which at most differs only twelve feet from the truth, if we suppose the Dead Sea was then at its lowest" (Sir Henry .James, in the Atfiena'Um^.