Dead Sea

“ The lack of these helped vastly to make the living mass inside the Stockade a human Dead Sea—or rather a Dying Sea—a putrefying, stinking lake, resolving itself into phosphorescent corruption, like those rotting southern seas, whose seething filth burns in hideous reds, and ghastly greens and yellows. ”

“ Nothing grows in the flat, burning desert around it but weeds and the Dead Sea apple the poets say is beautiful to the eye, but crumbles to ashes and dust when you break it. Such as we found were not handsome, but they were bitter to the taste. They yielded no dust. It was because they were not ripe, perhaps.
The desert and the barren hills gleam painfully in the sun, around the Dead Sea, and there is no pleasant thing or living creature upon it or about its borders to cheer the eye. It is a scorching, arid, repulsive solitude. ”

“ All our reading had taught us to expect that the first plunge into the Dead Sea would be attended with distressing results—our bodies would feel as if they were suddenly pierced by millions of red-hot needles; the dreadful smarting would continue for hours; we might even look to be blistered from head to foot, and suffer miserably for many days. We were disappointed. Our eight sprang in at the same time that another party of pilgrims did, and nobody screamed once. ”

“ It is remarkable that in no part of the world, in any age, has the sea been selected as a burial place for the dead. Indeed, the idea of being drowned at sea, or dying on shipboard to be intombed in the fathomless ocean, is so abhorrent to many individuals that it is with fear and trembling they trust themselves on the water. ”

“ The sandy shores all round are full of this salt and nothing can grow there, so all is desolate and dreary, and thus it is that the name Dead Sea is so appropriate. If you tried to swim in that sea you would find it impossible to sink, for just as sea-water holds you up more than fresh, so the Dead Sea water holds you up more than that of the ordinary sea. ”

“ Yet I had not noticed its more dreadful aspect at the first coming; and, when I did so, I gave a cry of horror and turned away my face, fearing to see again that most overwhelming spectacle. For blocks had been cut from the clear ice, and the dead seamen had been laid in the frozen mass just as they had died, without coffin or other covering than their clothes. There they lay, their faces upturned, many of them displaying all the placid peacefulness of death ”

“ These are a few of the many reminders that fully justify the modern name of the Dead Sea. Its historic associations, the destruction of the wicked cities of the plain, the murder of John the Baptist at Machærus on the eastern heights, and the later massacre at Masada are all harsh and appalling. In common with the Jordan valley, this region is richly suggestive of the destructive forces of nature. Life is here grim, severe, and relentless. ”

“ No creature can live in the Red Sea, and whatever does not live in it sinks to the bottom; and that is why it is called the Dead Sea, because there is no movement in it, and it is like bitumen or pitch, because it seizes and slays whatever enters it, and in this way it very closely resembles sin, which seizes man and puts him to spiritual death in the sight of God, and plunges him into hell. ”

“ The Dead Sea occupies the lowest portion of the valley. Soundings have shown it to be very deep. Not only are its waters heavily charged with salt, but other chemicals make yet more uninhabitable its basin. No fish or other form of life lives in its waters, which possess remarkable clearness and are intensely blue. Having no outlets save evaporation, and lying where heat is great, the sea is like a mighty caldron, above which a column of steam rises constantly. ”

“ The Dead Sea is the most remarkable body of water in the world. It is ten miles wide, forty in length lying in a deep ravine, about thirteen hundred feet below the level of the Mediterranean, enclosed by lofty cliffs of bare white and grey limestone. ”

“ Above the darksome sea of death Looms the great life that is to be, A land of cloud and mystery, A dim mirage, with shapes of men Long dead and passed beyond our ken, Awe-struck we gaze, and hold our breath Till the fair pageant vanisheth, Leaving us in perplexity, And doubtful whether it has been A vision of the world unseen, Or a bright image of our own Against the sky in vapors thrown.
LUCIFER, singing from the sea. Thou didst not make it, thou canst not mend it, But thou hast the power to end it! The sea is silent, the sea is discreet, Deep it lies at thy very feet ”

“ There was plenty more dead fish in the numerous holes, and I picked out two and put them in the shade; but I knew that the great heat must soon taint them and rot the rest, whence would come a stench that might make the island poisonous to me.
I sat down under the bends of the ship for the shadow it threw, and gazed at the sea. Perhaps I ought to have felt grateful for the miraculous creation of this spot of land, when, but for it, I must have miserably perished in the life-buoy, dying a most dreadful, slow, tormenting death, if some shark had not quickly despatched me ”

“ If we establish the fact that the Dead Sea at a former period did send a river to the ocean, we carry along with it the admission that when that sea overflowed into that river, then the water that fell from the clouds over the Dead Sea basin was more than the winds could convert into vapor and carry away again ”

“ Then the climate gradually changed, the land went dry, and the Dead Sea water became far saltier than that of the ocean—so salty that all life died out of it. To-day the water tastes like a mixture of epsom salts and quinine, and any unfortunate - 207 - fish swept into it by the fresh waters of the Jordan, in which fish are abundant, gives a few desperate gasps and dies.
THE DEAD SEA
HOW THE DEAD SEA DIED
While it is not true, as the ancients believed, that birds drop dead in flying over it, neither birds nor beasts make their homes in the choking pit ”

“ As has already been stated, the water of the Dead Sea, though deep in the northern part, spreads out toward the southward over an immense region of flats and shallows, so that sometimes the water is only a few feet deep over an extent of many miles. ”

“ From some experiments it is estimated that the level of the Dead Sea is several hundred feet lower than those of the Mediterranean. If a passage then were made connecting the Red with the Dead Sea, the waters would flow into it, so as to cover all the plain of the Jordan, and even raise the level of the waters of Lake Tiberias. ”

“ But the waters of the Dead Sea have no connection with those of the ocean; they are cut off from its channels of circulation, and are therefore quite different, as to their components, from any arm, firth, or gulf of the broad ocean. Its inhabitants are also different from those of the high seas. "The water which evaporates from the sea is nearly pure, containing but very minute traces of salts. Falling as rain upon the land, it washes the soil, percolates through the rocky layers, and becomes charged with saline substances, which are borne seaward by the returning currents. ”

“ Even the chance of a shot at a seal now and again fails to enliven one. The silence of the surroundings is too oppressive; all seems dead, and it seems like some hideous dream to row about on these motionless waters, with the ghostly frozen monstrosities floating around. ”

“ We leave the river and ride for an hour and a half across a nearly level plain, the earth of which shows salts here and there, dotted with a low, fat-leaved plant, something like the American sage-bush. Wild-flowers enliven the way, and although the country is not exactly cheerful, it has no appearance of desolation except such as comes from lack of water.
The Dead Sea is the least dead of any sheet of water I know. ”

“ Both these places, En-gedi and En-eglaim, are on the shores of the Dead Sea, in which no creature can live. Thousands of small Fishes are daily carried into the Dead Sea from the Jordan, and as soon as the fresh water of the river mingles with the poisonous waves of the Dead Sea the Fishes die. ”

“ That sea is in length five hundred and eighty furlongs, and in breadth one hundred and fifty furlongs, and is called the Dead Sea, because it does not run, but is ever motionless. Neither man, beast, nor anything that hath life, may die in that sea ”

“ Unexpectedly, at the very moment when the priest began to intone the Pater Noster, I thought of the deep sea as the only clean and holy receptacle for the vase containing my ashes. If it were dropped where the sea is deepest it would not reach the bottom, but would hang suspended in dark, moveless depths where only a few fishes range, in a cool, deep grave "made without hands, in a world without stain," surrounded by a lovely revel of Bacchanals, youths and maidens, and wild creatures from the woods, man in his primitive animality. But nothing lasts for ever. ”

“ The very ribs of the solid earth, with the foundations of the sea, would be brought to light, and we should have presented to us at one view, in the empty cradle of the ocean, “a thousand fearful wrecks,” with that dreadful array of dead men’s skulls, great anchors, heaps of pearl and inestimable stones, which, in the poet’s eye, lie scattered in the bottom of the sea, making it hideous with sights of ugly death. ”

“ Taking the mean depth, width, and velocity of its more constant tributaries, I had estimated the quantity of water which the Dead Sea was hourly receiving from them at the time of our visit, but the calculation is one so liable to error, that I withhold it. It is scarcely necessary to say, that the quantity varies with the season, being greater during the winter rains, and much less in the heat of summer. ”

“ Nothing but some very low forms of animal life, unobserved by the ordinary traveler, can live in this sea. The fish that get into it from the Jordan soon die. Those who bathe here usually drive over to the Jordan and bathe again, to remove the salt and other substances that remain on the body after the first bath. The greatest depth of the Dead Sea is a little over thirteen hundred feet. ”

“ The valley may then have sunk a few feet, and become submerged. This, it is true, is mere theory ; it is a theory, however, suggested, and to a large extent confirmed, by the physical aspect of the country, and the careful observations of travellers around the lake. The subject is not one for vague speculation, and much less for dogmatic assertion. The problems which the Dead Sea present must be- solved, if they are ever to be solved, by scientific research. It is not strange that the Dead Sea has never been navigated to any extent. ”

“ The journey to the Dead Sea is one undertaken by almost all travellers—notwithstanding the dangers, more imaginary than real, by which it is foreshadowed. Our dragoman was careful that our party left their gold and watches with the banker, as there were Tumours of an incursion of Bedouins from beyond Jordan. ”

“ In its waters no vertebrate animals can exist. The excessive quantities of salt, together with magnesia, and masses of asphalt contained in that sea, kill every living object. The atmosphere of this region is likewise impregnated with salt, and, as the adjacent land is covered with lime-pits, it forms a dreary desert. The oval-shaped border of the Dead Sea rises, in some parts, to a height of more than 1,300 feet above the water level, and being totally bare and barren, the entire district presents a most dismal aspect. ”

“ The temperature of the water was 33° Reaum.; in colour it is a pale green. Near the shore the water is to a certain extent transparent; but as it deepens it seems turbid, and the eye can no longer pierce the surface. We could not even see far across the water, for a light mist seemed to rest upon it, thus preventing us from forming a good estimate of its breadth.
To judge from what we could distinguish, however, the Dead Sea does not appear to be very broad; it may rather be termed an oblong lake, shut in by mountains, than a sea. Not the slightest sign of life can be detected in the water ”

“ Not a human being was in the scope of vision; nor tent, nor hut, nor sight of human dwelling. There was no sound, save the rush of the river and the noise of the wind, as it swept over the nodding grain — a yellow sea! ”

“ It is most important to ascertain whether birds live on the shores, or fish within the depths, of the Dead Sea; and not less, to not carefully every stream and fissure, their direction and their depth, and to ascertain, if possible, whether the former are perpetual, or only temporary, torrents. ”

“ The Dead Sea is inclosed on the east and west with exceeding high mountains; on the north it is bounded by the plain of Jericho, on which side also it receives the waters of Jordan. On the south it is open, and extends beyond the reach of the eye. It is said to be twenty-four leagues long, and six or seven broad. ”

“ It is call’d the Dead Sea, perhaps from its heavy Waters hardly to be mov’d by the Winds, or else because it has no visible efflux into the Ocean, nor is at all increas’d by the River Jordan, and 144many other Waters that flow into it, or Thirdly, In that no living Creature can breath in it, but is on the contrary suffocated by its Bituminous Steams, the great abundance whereof also occasions it to be call’d Lacus Asphaltites. ”

“ The waters of the Dead Sea contain nearly a fourth part of solid matter, of which one-half is common salt. It is said the bottom or bed of the sea is of asphalt, and lumps of bitumen are frequently seen thrown up on its shores, as also some Hakes of sulphur. ”