267
SALT SEA
COMPARATIVE TABLE OF ANALYSES OF THE WATER OF THE DEAD SEA.
Components.
1.
C.G.
Ginelin, 1824.
As rfical- culateil by Marcliand.
2.
Apjohn, 1838.
3.
Marchand, 1847.
4.
Herapath,
1S49.
5.
liootll, of I'hiln- dolphia (U.S. Exiwd.), 1849.
6.
Boutron-
Charlurd
and
Henry.
7.
Prof. W.
Grci.'ory, 1854.
8.
Molden- hauer,
Nov. 1854.
9.
Water of the Ocean.
Chloride of mafjnesium
12.166
7.039
3.33G
1.(186
.161
.007
.143
!052 !442
7.870
7.839
2. 438
.852
.005
!075 !201
10.543 6.578 2.894 1.398
iois
!0S8 !251
!003
7.822
12.109
2.455
1.217
.006
.006
.056
.003
!06S
!251
!062
14.589
7. 855
3.107
.658
!070 '.137
1.696
11.003
.680
.166
!233 trace
!26o ;953
13.951
7.339
2.796
.571
!l66 '.009
6.831 2.957 1.471 2.391
".062 '.183
.360 2.700
!070
!l40 .230 .002
!003 Loss .025
" potassium
" niaugauese
" ammonium
" alumiuiuin
" magnesia
Bi'omide of magnesium
Sil?ca
Total solid contents
Water
24.435 75.565
18.780 81.220
21.773 7S.227
24.055 75.945
26.416 73.584
14.927 85.073
24.832 75.168
13.895 86.105
3.530 90.470
100.000
100. OOU
100.000
100.000
100.000
100.000
100.000
100.000
100.000
1.202
1.153 221°
Jordan,
Inte in rainy
1.1841 at 66° F.
in 1847,
at the
north end.
1.172
227.75
in March. 1849, y. mile N.W. of moutii of Jordan.
1.227 at 60° F.
May 6, '48
195 fath.
deep,
off
A.-Terabeh
1.099
Apr. 2, 18,10, "2 hours from the Jordan."
1.210
at 60° F.
from
Island at
N. end,
March 11,
1854.
1.116
in June, 1854.
1.0278
presence is due the therapeutic reputation enjoyed by the lake when its water was sent to Rome for wealthy invalids (Galen, in Kelaiul, Pakest, p. 2J:2) or lepers flocked to its shores (.A.nt. Mart. § 10). Boussingault (Ann. de Chiniie, 185G, xlviii, 1G8) remarks that if ever bromide should become an article of commerce, the Dead Sea will be the natural source for it. It is the magiie- sian compounds which impart so nauseous and bitter a tiavor to the water. The quantity of common salt in solution is very large. Lynch found (Narrative, p. 377) that while distilled water would dissolve ^^ of its weight of salt, and the water of the Atlantic \, the water of the Dead Sea was so nearly saturated as only to be able to take up Jj-. The above differences in the analysis of the water of the Dead Sea must be expected. When the sea is flooded by freshets, the amount of salts in solution will be less ; when low, after the evaporation of the summer, the amount will be more. The presence of these foreign ingredients in such quantities is easily accounted for. The washings of the salt range of Us- dum, and numerous brackish springs along the shores, sup|)ly the salt; the great sulphur fountain at Callir- rhoij, and many others on the north and west, with the sulphur, bitumen, iron, etc., found so abundantly in the later deposits, supply the other ingredients. It is known also that large masses of bitumen are occasionally forced up from the bed of the sea ; and it may be that beneath its waves are fountains and deposits more numerous and more remarkable than those in the surrounding rocks and plains. Then, too, the constant evaporation takes away the pure water, but leaves behind all the salts, which are thus gradually increasing in quantity.
Of the temperature of the water more observations are necessary before any inferences can be drawn. Lynch (Report, May 5) states that a stratum at 59^ Fahr. is al- most invariably found at ten fathoms below the surface. Between Wady Zerka and Ain-Terabeh the tempera- ture at surface was 7(P, graduall}' decreasing to Oi^ at 1044 feet deep, with the exception just named (Narru- iive, p. 374). At other times, and in the lagoon, the temperature ranged from 82^ to 90°, and from h° to 10° below that of the air (ihid. p. 310-320 ; com p. Poole, Nov. 2). Dr. Stewart (Tent and Khan, p. 381), on ISIarch 11, 18.54, found the .Jordan fi0° Fahr. and the Dead Sea (north end) 73°; the temperature of the air being 83° in the former case and 78° in the latter.
The water is fatal to animal life ; and this fact, accord- ing to Jerome, originated the name Dead Sea (A d Ezcch. xlviii, 8; comp. Galen, De Simpl. iv, 19). Shells and small fish, in a dead or dying state, have been picked up along the northern shore, and are found in some of the little fountains along the western coast; but they are all of foreign importation. Recent investigations have led some to suppose that the Dead Sea does contain and support a few inferior organizations, but the fact has not as yet been established on conclusive evidence. Lying in this deep caldron, encompassed by naked white cliffs and white plains, exposed during a great part of the year to the unclouded beams of a Syrian sun, it is not strange that the shores of the Dead Sea should exhibit an almost unexampled sterility and a death-like soli- tude; nor is it strange that in a rude and iinscientitic age the sea should have become the subject of wild and wondrous superstitions. •' Seneca relates that bricks would not sink in it. Early travellers describe the lake as an infernal region ; its black and fetid waters always emitting a noisome smoke or vapor, which, being driven over the land, destroys all vegetation like a frost. Hence, too, the popular report that birds cannot fly over its deadly waters" (Roinnson, Fki/sical Genf/raphi/, p. 199). Such stories are fabulous. It is true that the tropical heat causes immense evaporation, the exhalations from the sulphurous springs and marshes taint the air for miles, and the miasma of the swamps on the north and south gives rise to fevers, and renders the ordinary inhali- itants feeble and sickly; but this has no necessary con- nection with the Dead" Sea. or the character of its waters. The marshes of Iskanderfin are much more unhealthy than any part of the (ihor. Wherever a copious foun- tain bubbles up along the shores, or a mountain stream- let affords water for irrigation, tangled thickets of tropi- cal trees, shrubs, and flowers spread out their foliage. There binls sing as s\vectly as in more genial climes, and the Arab pitches his t'ent like his brethren on the Eastern ))lateau, and an abundant harvest rewards the labors of the husbandman. Tristram exclaims with something of enthusiasm, " WHiat a sanitarium Engedi mieht be made, if it were only accessible, and some en- terprising sjieculator were to establish a hydropathic es- tablishment ! Mot water, cohl water, and decidedly salt water baths, all supplied by nature on the spot, the hot sulphur springs only three miles off, and some of the