'The Expedition for the survey of the rivers Euphrates and Tigris, carried on by order of the British government, in the years 1835, 1836, and 1837; preceded by geographical and historical notices of the regions situated between the rivers Nile and Indus. In four volumes. With fourteen maps and charts, and embellished with ninety-seven plates, besides numerous wood-cuts. Volume the first.' [‎402] (481/905)

402
THE DEAD SEA.
[CHAP. XVII.
into that sea, yet the extreme saltness of its waters is not
perceptibly diminished.
Dimensions of The great expanse of water covering the sites of the five
the Dead Sea. ^| ties 0 f ^ pi a i nj the Bahr Lut of the Arabs, occupies a
singular chasm formed by lofty cliffs of limestone, which rise
to about 1500 feet above the western, and nearly 2500 feet
on the eastern side of the vale of Sodom. But the green
waters now occupying the place of a territory which once, for
its fertility, was compared to the "Garden of the Lord:" 1 the
deep and precipitous valleys, and the masses of bare and shat
tered rocks, together with the solitude which prevails, render
this region one of the wildest on the face of the earth. Lake
Asphaltites is only a part of the Wadi A seasonal or intermittent watercourse, or the valley in which it flows. -el-Ghor : it does not
spread into an oval shape like that of Tiberias; and except at
each extremity, where it forms a kind of bay, it preserves
nearly a width of 9 miles throughout an extent of about 39
miles from north to south. 2 These are less than the dimen
sions given by two ancient writers, 3 and more than those of
Strabo, 4 but in the bay which the Jordan enters, the width
scarcely exceeds 3 miles ; it is, however, as has been observed
by this geographer, very deep; for, according to a recent ex
amination, the soundings Measurements of the depth of a body of water. in many places give more than 300
fathoms : 5 at the southern extremity it becomes shallow, with
the appearance of an ordinary lake, into which a sort of flat
broad peninsula projects from the eastern side, having at its
extremity a ford which is occasionally used by the Arabs in
passing from Kerek to the western shore near Wadi A seasonal or intermittent watercourse, or the valley in which it flows. -es-
Seiqul. 6 The long winding bay alluded to sweeps round
from the peninsula to the southern extremity of the Dead
1 Gen. xiii. ver. 10.
2 Biblical Researches in Palestine, &c., by Edward Robinson, D.D.
s Diodorus Siculus, lib. II., c. 29, gives 500 stadia long, by 60 stadia wide,
and Edrisi, Ed. Jaubert, p. 345, says the Dead Sea is 60 miles long by 12
miles wide.
4 Lake Sirbon is 1000 stadia in circumference and 200 stadia long, lib
XVI., pp. 760, 163.
8 Mr. Moore's Examination of the Dead Sea, vol. VII., part II., p. 456,
of the Royal Geographical Journal.
* Travels of Irby and Mangles, p. 454.