sants,) from a village near Mâr Sâba, coming to this part of the Dead Sea after salt. . . The poor animals had afterwards to ascend this difficult pass with heavy loads. The salt is used for cooking, after being washed. Here, at the fountain, are the remains of several buildings, apparently ancient; though the main site of the town seems to have been further below. The fountain itself is limpid and sparkling, with a copious stream of sweet water, but warm Kept in vessels over night, we found it delightfully cool and refreshing

"We set off for the shore about five o'clock, and reached it in some twenty-five minutes, descending along the thicket by the brook. The declivity is here still steep, though less so than the pass above. The whole of this descent was apparently once terraced for tillage and gardens; and on the right, near the foot, are the ruins of a town, exhibiting nothing of particular interest . . From the base of the declivity, a fine rich plain slopes off very gradually, nearly half a mile to the shore. The brook runs across it directly to the sea; though, at this season, its waters were absorbed by the thirsty earth long before reaching the shore. So far as the water extended, the plain was covered with gardens, chiefly of cucumbers The soil of the whole plain is exceedingly fertile, and might easily be tilled, and produce rare fruits. In various parts of it are traces of unimportant ruins. The length of the plain is little more than half a mile, it being nearly a square; terminated on the south by the valley El-Ghâr, which here enters the sea between lofty precipices; and on the north by the valley Sudeir, a comparatively short ravine, breaking down from above, through the cliffs, between banks almost equally lofty and precipitous. Indeed, the cliff upon its northern side, called El-Mersed, just beyond the plain, is, perhaps, the highest and most inaccessible along the whole western coast; and its base, projecting into the sea, cuts off all further passage along the shore. The precipice upon which

we had stood near the brow of the pass, is situated somewhat further back, and stands like a gigantic bastion between these valleys, overlooking and almost overhanging the plain.

"The approach to the sea is here over a bank of pebbles, six or eight feet higher than the level of the water, as we saw it. These are covered with a shining crust, as of salt, or rather of an oily appearance. The water has a slightly greenish hue, and is not entirely transparent; but objects seen through it, appear as if seen through oil. It is most intensely and intolerably salt; and leaves behind a nauseous bitter taste, like Glauber's salts. It is said that common salt thrown into it, will not even be dissolved; we did not try the experiment, but such would seem very likely to be the fact. The water is exceedingly buoyant. Two of us bathed in the sea, and although I never could swim before, either in fresh or salt water, yet here I could sit, stand, lie, or swim in the water, without difficulty . . . This buoyancy is mentioned by many ancient writers. The shore in this part shelved down very gradually, so that we waded out eight or ten rods before the water reached our shoulders

"We returned much exhausted to our tent, and spent the evening, until quite late, in writing up our journals on the spot. The beams of the full moon lay upon the sea below us, diffusing a glow of light over the

darkness of death.

“... Shut in, as this deep caldron is, between walls of rock, the heat of the burning summer cannot be otherwise than very great. And such is the richness of the soil, both along the descent below the fountain, and on the little plains, and such the abundance of water, that nothing but tillage is wanting to render this a most prolific spot. It would be admirably adapted to the cultivation of tropical fruits.

"We had no question . . . that this spot is the ancient En-gedi. With this name the present 'Ain Jidy of the

6

Arabs is identical, and, like it, also signifies the Fountain of the Kid.' The more ancient Hebrew name was Hazezon-tamar. As such, it is first mentioned before the destruction of Sodom, as being inhabited by Amorites, and near to the cities of the plain. Under the name En-gedi, it occurs as a city of Judah in the desert, giving its name to a part of the desert to which David withdrew for fear of Saul. At a later period, bands of the Moabites and Ammonites came up against king Jehoshaphat, apparently around the south end of the Dead Sea, as far as to En-gedi; by the very same route, it would seem, which is taken by the Arabs in their marauding expeditions at the present day, along the shore as far as to 'Ain Jidy, and then up the pass, and so northwards below Tekoa. According to Josephus, En-gedi lay upon the lake Asphaltis, and was celebrated for beautiful palm-trees and opobalsam, while its vineyards are likewise mentioned in the Old Testament. From it, towards Jerusalem, there was an ascent 'by the cliff Ziz,' which seems to have been none other than the present pass. In the days of Eusebius and Jerome, En-gedi was still a large village on the shore of the Dead Sea...

"The bed of the Dead Sea is only a portion of the Ghôr, or Great Valley, which here retains its usual breadth, and does not spread out into an oval form, or to a larger compass, as is the case around the lake of Tiberias...

"The phenomena around the Dead Sea are such as might naturally be expected from the character of its

1 Dr. Robinson afterwards mentions this route again. "From the south end of the Dead Sea," he writes, "this great road follows the shore below as far as to 'Ain Jidy, and then ascends the pass." This is "the great Arab track through the desert, along the Dead Sea, by which the Arabs of the southern deserts, and those who come from the east around the southern end of the sea, are able to penetrate far to the north, without letting their movements be known to the tribes or villages farther west... It was, doubtless, by this same Arab road that the Moabites and Ammonites come up against king Jehoshaphat."—Vol. ii. pp. 247, 248.

waters, and of the region round about-a naked solitary desert. It lies in its deep caldron, surrounded by lofty cliffs of naked limestone rock, and exposed for seven or eight months in each year to the unclouded beams of a burning sun. Nothing, therefore, but sterility and death-like solitude can be looked for upon its shores; and nothing else is actually found, except in those parts where there are fountains, or streams of fresh water. Such is the case at 'Ain Jidy, in the Ghôr, near the S.E. corner of the sea, and on the isthmus of the peninsula; to say nothing of the Jordan, and the fountains around Jericho, on the north.

In

all these places there is a fertile soil, and abundant vegetation; nor have I ever seen a more luxuriant growth than at 'Ain Jidy. Here, too, were birds in great numbers in the thicket, and we saw them frequently flying over the sea . . .

"The body of the mountains around the sea is every where limestone, excepting Usdum, which is of rock salt... There is a black shining stone, found at the northern extremity of the sea, which partially ignites in the fire, and emits a bituminous smell. . . It is used in Jerusalem for the manufacture of (various) little articles. Sulphur is found in various parts; we picked up pieces of it as large as a walnut, near the northern shore; and the Arabs said it was found in the sea near 'Ain el-Feshkhah, in lumps as large as a man's fist. They find it in sufficient quantities to make from it their own gunpowder. Near Usdum, we afterwards picked up small lumps of nitre. All these circumstances testify to the volcanic nature of the whole region; and this is also confirmed by the warm fountains of 'Ain Jidy, and el Feshkhah, on the west, and the hot sulphur springs. . . on the eastern coast..

"According to the testimony of all antiquity, and of most modern travellers, there exists within the waters of the Dead Sea no living thing-no trace, indeed, of animal or vegetable life. Our own experience, so far

as we had an opportunity to observe, goes to confirm the truth of this testimony. We perceived no sign of life within the waters. Yet, occasionally, travellers have seen shells on the shore, which has led to the supposition, that small muscles, or periwinkles, may, after all, exist in the sea. . . (but these shells, probably, were those of land animals; for the exact and cautious Seetzen observes, 'Snails and muscles I have not found in the lake; some snails that I picked up on the shore were land-snails;') ... or, if they actually belonged to the lake, they probably have existed in it only near the mouth of the Jordan, where there is a large intermixture of fresh water, or in the vicinity of the various fountains which enter the sea. As we were leaving Palestine, we saw in the possession of two English travellers a small flat fish, about the length of a man's little finger, which was put into their hands as having been taken in the Dead Sea, and as proving that the sea was actually inhabited by fish. But the report added further, that the fish was found on the northern shore, at some distance from the mouth of the Jordan, and when caught, was in an exhausted and dying state. It would seem, therefore, much more probable that this was a wanderer from the Jordan, who paid for his temerity with his life; furnishing a further example of the truth of Jerome's remark, that when the Jordan, swollen by the rain, sometimes carries down fish into the Dead Sea, they die immediately, and float upon the sluggish waters.'

"The naturalist Schubert says, 'Fish, or snails, do not indeed live in this supersalt sea; the melastoma which we found on the shore, as well as the small dead fishes, of which we saw and picked up several thrown out by the waves upon the strand, are brought down by the Jordan, or accompany voluntarily his flood; but they soon pay for this love of wandering with their lives.""

". . . After the earthquake of January 1, 1837, a