Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 7.djvu/12

The mountain range along the eastern side of the Dead Sea is the sustaining wall of the tableland of Moab, which has an elevation of about 2800 feet, and is therefore 4000 feefc above the lake. At the southern end the range is composed of red sandstone, a continuation of the " red " mountains of Edom. At the valley of Kerek the sandstone gives place to limestone ; but further north it again appears in thick strata below the limestone. The range is intersected by the deep and wild ravines of Kerak (the Kir-Moab of the Bible), Mojeb (the ancient Arnon], and Zerka Main (Maoii). A few miles from the mouth of the latter are the warm springs of Callirrhoe, famous in Jewish and Roman times. A copious stream of warm sulphureous water flows into the lake between stupendous cliffs of sandstone. North of Zerka Main the cliffs along the shore are sandstose, but higher up the limestone overlies the sandstone, while dykes and seams of old.trap-rock also occur. At the mouth of the ravine of Kerak, on the south-east of the sea, is the peninsula of Lisdn, " The Tongue." Its neck is a strip of bare sand about 3 miles broad. In form the peninsula bears some resemblance to the human foot, the toe projecting northward up the centre of the sea. Its length is about 9 miles. It is a post-tertiary deposit of layers of marl, gypsum, and sandy conglomerate ; the surface is white and almost destitute of vegetation. The Jordan enters the lake at the centre of its northern end, and has on each bank a low alluvial plain, now a desert, and mostly coated with a white nitrous crust. In fact the whole circuit of the lake is wild, dreary, and desolate. Ridges of drift mark the water-line, which rises a few feet in spring, when the Jordan, fed by the melting snows of Hermon, flows in full stream. The drift is com posed of broken canes and willow branches, with trunks of palms, poplars, and other trees, half-imbedded in slimy mud, and covered with incrustations of salt. Lying in a deep cavity, shut in by naked white hills, exposed during the long summer to the burning rays of an unclouded sun, nothing could be expected on the shores of the Dead Sea but sterility. Yet here and there on the low plains to the north and south, and on the eastern and western sides, wherever a little fountain springs up, or a mountain streamlet flows, there are thickets of willow, tamarisk, and acacia, among which the birds sing as sweetly as in more genial climes. The Arab also pitches his tent beside them, and sometimes cultivates a few patches of grain, and tobacco. The heat causes such excessive evaporation that though the Jordan and other smaller streams fall into the lake the water seems to be gradually decreasing. The marshes along the shore, especially to the north and south, emit pestilential exhalations during summer and autumn which are fatal to strangers, and which make the inhabi tants of Jericho, and the few poor tribes who pitch their tents in the surrounding territory, weak and sickly. They are degraded and immoral also, as were their progenitors in the " cities of the plain." The only ruin of note close to the Dead Sea is the fortress of Masada, on a cliff on the western shore, opposite the peninsula of Lisan. It was the scene of the final struggle between the Jews and the Romans after the de struction of Jerusalem by Titus. At Engedi there are a few ruins ; and also at Ain-el-Feshkhah on the north-west, and on a little peninsula near the mouth of the Jordan. The ruins of Sodom and Gomorrah have entirely disappeared. Their site is disputed, for some hold that they stood near the northern end of the lake, while others affirm that they must have been situated at the southern end. The bed of the Dead Sea is divided into two sections ; the northern, extending from the mouth of the Jordan to the peninsula of Lisan, is 33 miles long, and is a regular basin- shaped cavity, its sides descending steeply and uniformly to a depth of 1308 feet. The southern section is shallow, the greatest depth of the channel between the peninsula and the western shore being only 13 feet, while no part of tha lake south of the peninsula is more than 12 feet, and most of it only 3 or 4 feet deep. The water is intensely salt and bitter, and its density is so great that the human body will not sink in it. The following is an analysis of water lifted by Captain Lynch from a depth of 1110 feet, the specific gravity of which was 1-227:— Chloride of calcium 3 107 Chloride of magnesium 14 889 Chloride of sodium 7 855 Chloride of potassium 0-658 Sulphate of lime 070 Bromide of potassium 0. 137 Total 26-416 The presence of so much saline matter is accounted -for by the washings of the salt range of Sodom, the numerous brackish springs along the shore, and the great evaporation. The reports of early travellers, however, regarding the Dead Sea were to a great extent fabulous. They represented it as an infernal region, its black and fetid waters always emitting a noisome vapour, which being driven over the adjoining land destroyed all vegetation ; they also stated that no birds could fly over it. All this is untrue ; the water is as transparent as that of the Mediterranean, and a bath in it is both pleasant and refreshing. The historical notices of the Dead Sea extend back nearly 4000 years. When Lot looked down from the heights of Bethel, he "beheld all the plain of the Jordan that it was well watered, before the Lord destroyed Sodom, even as the garden of the Lord" (Gen. xiii. 10). The region is further described as a " deep valley " (Emek, Gen. xiv. 3, 8), dis tinguished by " fertile fields " (Siddim). The aspect now is entirely different. There must have been a lake then as now ; but it was smaller, and had a margin of fertile plain, especially on the southern end, " as thou comest unto Zoar." In the narration of the capture of the cities of the plain by the Eastern kings, it is said that they were situated in the " vale of Siddim," which was full of " bitumen (slime) pits." When the cities were destroyed, " the Lord rained upon Sodom and upon Gomorrah brim stone and fire from the Lord out of heaven ; " and Abraham from the mountain ridges " looked toward Sodom, and toward all the land of the plain, and, lo, the smoke of the country went up as the smoke of a furnace" (Gen. xix. 24-, 28). The sacred writer further asserts regarding the vale of Siddim that it became the Salt Sea, or was submerged ; and consequently it now forms part of the bed of the lake. These events entirely changed, as it would seem, both the political and physical condition of the whole region. Upon the plains originally existing round the sea Gentile and Jewish records combine in placing the earliest seat of Phoenician civilization. " The Tyrians," says Justin, " first dwelt by the Syrian lake before they removed to Sidon." Sodom and Gomorrah are mentioned as the first cities of the Canaanites ; and when Lot went down from Bethel " the cities of the plain " formed a nucleus of civilized life before any city, except Hebron and perhaps Jerusalem, had sprung up in central Palestine. The great catastrophe in the days of Abraham changed the aspect of the country, and gave a death-blow to its prosperity. With the exception of the village of Engedi, and the small town of Jericho, the circuit of the Dead Sea appears to have remained ever afterwards almost without settled inhabitants. Recent researches, especially those of M. Lartet, the Due de Luynes, and Canon Tristram, have contributed greatly to our knowledge of the physical geography of the Dead Sea basin. It is now shown from the geological