EDITOR'S TABLE.

[Notices of most of the following works are intended to be given next Month.] Harmony of the Four Gospels, in the Authorised Version. Following the Harmony of the Gospels in Greek, by Edward Robinson, D.D., LL.D. Tract Society.

Benefit of Christ's Death; or, The Glorious Riches of God's Free Grace, which every true Believer receives. By Aonio Paleario. Tract Society.

Philosophy of Religion; or, An Illustration of the Moral Laws of the Universe. By Thomas Dick, LL.D. W. Collins.

The Jewish Exile; or, Religion exemplified in the Life and Character of Daniel. By the Rev. John Kennedy, A.M. John Snow.

With an Account of the

William Collins.

Sketches of Protestantism in Italy, past and present. Waldenses. By Robert Baird, D.D. William Collins. Scenes from the Bible. By the Rev. J. A. Wylie, A.M. The Water Cure Journal and Hygienic Magazine. December, 1847. J. Gadsby. The Eastern Counties' Journal and Temperance Intelligencer. J. W. Miatt, South Shields.

THE DEAD SEA.

THIS lake is situate in the land of Palestine; is about seventy miles long and twenty in width; and has not any known communication with the ocean. By Moses it is called the Sea of the Plains, and the Salt Sea. Deut. iv. 17. Formerly it was called the Sea of Sodom; because it covers the city of Sodom which God in the days of Lot destroyed. By Greek and Latin writers it has been generally designated the Lake of Asphaltites, on account of the quantity of bitumen, or asphalt, which it contains. It has also been called the Dead Sea, most probably from the circumstance that it does not contain any fish. It is now called by the Arabs the Sea of Lot, and is known in Syria by that name. The following very interesting description of this lake was communicated by C. G. Addison, Esq. to the Metropolitan Magazine.

About two hours after leaving Rihhah, we found ourselves upon the brink of the Dead Sea. It was, however, almost entirely shut out from view by a thick jungle of tamarisks and tall reeds growing out of some low mudbanks which extended along the shore. We had great difficulty in penetrating through these and reaching the water's edge, as the ground was very soft, and the horses sank deep into the mud. At last, however, pushing boldly along some more elevated ground, we got clear of the jungle, and reached the edge of the lake, where we found a hard shingly bottom.

There was something extremely grand and striking in the appearance of the vast expanse of blue water which was thus suddenly presented to our view without any previous preparation. It was a delightful relief to the eye, after the wide dusty plains we had lately been familiar with. To the southward the calm blue lake was spread out as far as the eye could reach, blending itself with the azure sky far away in the distance. On the east it was bounded by a very lofty and most picturesque chain of bold mountains, which elevated their blue peaks high aloft into the heavens, and threw out spurs and waving ridges covered with a dwarf vegetation, which gave them a beautiful and picturesque diversity of colouring. On the west, the waters were bounded by a long range of much lower eminences, but more steep and precipitous; they terminated in perpendicular rocks and precipices, which plunged abruptly into the lake, and shut it in on that side, as it were with a perpendicular wall.

Wonder-seeking travellers have described the Dead Sea as of a strangely

gloomy, unearthly, and terrible appearance; and ancient historians have peopled the spot with horrors-the dreams, probably, of their own imaginations. The birds which attempted to cross it, say they, fell dead, suffocated by pestilential vapours; volumes of smoke escaped from the water, and hung in a gloomy cloud above, while the dull and leaden surface refused to be acted upon by the wind.

These strange appearances are now no longer visible. When I saw the lake, the waters, rippled by the light morning breeze, had a beautifully blue appearance, and sparkled joyously and brilliantly in the clear sunshine. The bold mountainous shores towered grandly on either hand, and the projecting eminences cast a magnificent breadth of light and shadow over the extended landscape.

The peculiar feature of the spot was its remarkable silence and solitude. It was strange to witness such an extensive view, and not a single human dwelling; such a wide expanse of water, and no boat or vessel anywhere chequering its surface; such an extended line of coast, and no animated object within the range of the visible horizon besides ourselves and horses. Justly might it be called dead, for there was no sign of life.

As we rode along the water's edge, our progress was impeded by a small creek or channel, which drained off the water from the neighbouring salt marshes; we attempted to regain the shore, but the thicket of tamarisks and reeds was utterly impervious, and it was impossible to ford the small water channel on account of the mud. The guide wanted to return, but spurring on my horse, I rode out into the lake, which was very shallow, and by keeping well away from the shore, we avoided all the swamps, tamarisks, and mudbanks. The bottom of the lake was in many parts covered with sunken driftwood, and the whole shore was strewed with boughs and branches of shrubs and bushes, brought down by the floods of the Jordan.

After riding for about half an hour, we arrived at a long rocky spit of land, that jutted out about two hundred yards into the lake; and, dismounting, I walked to the end of the little promontory, over loose fragments of stone, determining to put to the test the various reports of the remarkable buoyancy of the water. Throwing off my clothes, I plunged into the lake, but it was even here so shallow, that I had to run out an immense distance over a rough stony bottom, before I could get the water as high as my waist. I then threw myself into a swimming position, and was buoyed up in the most remarkable manner. Turning myself on my back, I floated with the greatest ease, and without the slightest exertion. Although there were only about four feet of water, I found it almost impossible to bring my feet again to the bottom, and to regain an erect posture. The body has certainly all the buoyancy of a cork. The water made my eyes smart in the most dreadful manner when I dipped my head into it; I was almost blinded, and my lips and nose tingled severely. I swam out a considerable distance; the water, however, increased very little in depth, but from my experiments on its buoyancy, I find that a person is completely carried off his legs, and floats (at least such was the case with me) when the chest is entirely immersed. The water is amazingly bitter and pungent, and makes the tongue and the mouth smart.

A bathe in the Dead Sea is anything but agreeable. I found it impossible to wipe myself dry; my whole body was in a clammy, sticky condition, and my hair was disgustingly tangled and greasy. The water, however, is beautifully transparent, and free from floating substances. I saw none of the bitumen which, it is said, rises and floats on the surface. The appellation of mare mortuum and el amout, "the Dead Sea," was no doubt given to this lake, because neither fish nor any other living thing whatever subsisted in its bitterly salt and poisonous waters. Some travellers, however, have contended that there are fish in the lake, because they have picked up the shells of shell-fish along the shore. These shells, if really the shells of fish, are undoubtedly the shells of fresh-water shell-fish, washed

down into the Dead Sea by the Jordan. There are several species of shellfish in the Lake of Tiberias: and the winter floods of the Jordan, which spread in every direction over this part of the valley, might easily have washed the shells down to the places where they have been found. The Arabs of Rihhah, my Arab guide, and the Albanian soldier, all averred that there were no fish in the lake. I cannot find that any person has ever seen any, and the common notion in the country is, that there is not a living thing of any sort in the waters. Indeed it is manifest that so magnificent a lake as this, about seventy miles in length, by twenty in breadth, could never have remained here so long, without the neighbouring inhabitants having been able to find out the fish, if any existed.

The lake is often spoken of in history, as a lonely mysterious spot, in whose deadly waters no living thing had being; while, on the other hand, the Lake of Tiberias is celebrated by ancient writers for the abundance and excellence of its fish, which formed the principal food of the surrounding inhabitants. Indeed, a fish out of the Dead Sea would be a rare curiosity, altogether sui generis, for sea fish or fresh-water fish could no more exist in these bitterly pungent waters, than they could in a basin of brandy.

We wandered on along the shores, and picked up several beautiful black pebbles, and some curious pieces of a very heavy dark stone. I saw no appearance anywhere of pumice stone, lava, or of any substance of a volcanic nature.

All along the low shore bordering the plain of Jericho extends a jungle of canes and tamarisks, growing from a swampy salt marsh: the boughs and branches of the shrubs are clammy and damp with salt dew. The water is very shallow, and in many parts, in consequence of the summer evaporation, it has subsided from the shore, and has left banks of mud and shingle incrusted with salt. All the little hollows and pools were filled with fine white layers of salt, almost as pure as if evaporated in regular salt-pans. An immense quantity of driftwood, saturated with salt, and remarkably heavy, extended all along the edge of the lake, and many of the branches and trunks of the trees were entirely incrusted with saline particles. These salt incrustations are peeled off in layers, and sold by the natives to the salt merchants, who export the salt to all parts of the country. Some of the twigs and branches, glistening in the sun, had quite the appearance of white coral.

The extreme saltness of this lake arises, in a great measure, from there being no outlet to its waters, the bulk and saltness of which go on regularly increasing and diminishing according to the season of the year. From the commencement of the rainy reason, the lake, swollen by the mountain torrents, and by the increased volume of the waters of the Jordan, begins gradually to rise, and the waters, being no longer wasted away by the rapid evaporation caused by the summer's sun, overflow their banks, and, driving back the waters of the Jordan, inundate all the low lands in the vicinity of the river. A great part of the plain over which we rode, my guide informed me, then becomes part of the lake. As the fine and dry weather comes on, and the heat of the sun increases, the evaporation becomes very great, and columns of fog may often be seen rising from the waters. The lake then contracts its boundaries, and continues slowly wasting away the whole summer and autumn, becoming more and more intensely salt until the month of December, when the rains usually recommence.

The same process we see going on in other salt lakes in this part of the world. The plain of salt on the route to Palmyra, which I have elsewhere described, is in the winter converted into a salt lake by the rains and mountain torrents, which pour into the hollow; but the volume of water being small, the whole of it is evaporated in the summer, and the lake is then converted into an extensive dry salt plain. The Dead Sea is so vast in extent, that the summer's evaporation is a mere nothing as compared with the volume of its waters; but still its magnitude is very materially affected by it; and the

intensity of its saltness is much diminished all along the northern shore, and near the mouth of the Jordan.

We continued our journey close to the water's edge, but our course was often greatly impeded by the treacherous nature of the ground. Many of the mud-banks were covered with a dirty saline incrustration, which gave them the appearance of hard dusty soil, into which the horses floundered and sank, and were once or twice in some danger of sticking fast. Our guide, however, seemed well acquainted with the localities, and we pushed rapidly onward towards the mouth of the Jordan. In some parts, the bottom of the lake was composed of a hard blue clay, at other parts it was covered with pebble and shingle, among which I found several beautiful stones of various colours.

From an eminence along the shore, we enjoyed an extensive view over a solitary plain, on the opposite side of a small bay, which extended between us and the bold range of the eastern mountains. Not a human being besides ourselves was anywhere visible, but at a great distance I observed a thin wreathing column of smoke, which probably came from a Bedouin encampment.

There is certainly a charm hovering round the solitudes of this interesting country, which we experience not amid the highly cultivated fields and the crowded cities of Europe, where we meet on all sides the habitations of men, and the results of human industry, which constantly remind us of man's presence. Here, no longer distracted with the variety of ideas which press upon us in the busy world, we naturally indulge in a host of associations of surpassing interest.

The solitary plains on the opposite side of the Jordan, along the shores of "the salt sea, are "the Plains of Moab," where the children of Israel pitched their tents after their victory over Og, king of Bashan, and all his people, at the battle of Edrei. The loftiest of the mountains, rising immediately behind these plains, and extending their curving lines directly in front of us, must be those of "Abarim,' "Nebo," and "Pisgah,"-for from those only can be seen "all the land of Judah unto the utmost sea."

"Get thee up into this mountain Abarim, unto Mount Nebo, which is in the land of Moab, that is over against Jericho; and behold the land of Canaan, which I give unto the children of Israel for a possession.

"And Moses went up from the plains of Moab unto the mountain of Nebo, to the top of Pisgah, that is over against Jericho. And the Lord showed him all the land of Gilead unto Dan, and the land Ephraim and Manasseh, and all the land of Judah, unto the uttermost sea. And the south, and the plain of the valley of Jericho, the city of palm trees, unto Zoar."

From these lofty eminences, then, directly in front of us, the Lord God first pointed out to the children of Israel "the land of Canaan," "the promised land" "flowing with milk and honey." "This is the land which I sware unto Abraham, unto Isaac, and unto Jacob, saying, I will give it unto thy seed."

What a rush of recollections come across the mind as we survey the surrounding solitude,-when we cast our eyes over the solitary waters, beneath whose glassy surface lie buried the ruins of Sodom and Gomorrah-on the desert, cheerless plain, where once stood Jericho-and on the silent banks of yon small river, "the river Jordan," where once the Israelites passed over on dry ground, preceded by the priests "bearing the ark of the covenant of the Lord," when "the waters which came down from above stood and rose up upon a heap, very far from the city Adana, that is beside Zaretan: and those that came down towards the sea of the plain, even the salt sea, failed, and the people passed over right against Jericho." From those opposite mountains, too, whose lofty summits gleam so brightly in the pure sunshine, the Lord God himself hath spoken, and we may say, in the words of

Chateaubriand, "Le desert paroit encore muet de terreur, et l'on diroit qu'il n'a osé rompre le silence depuis qu'il a entendu le voix de l'Eternel."

We halted to refresh our horses under some shrubs close to the lake, and we attempted to kindle a fire of the driftwood, but it was so saturated with salt, that our attempts were ineffectual, and no other fuel could be found. The sun, notwithstanding that the winter season had now commenced, shone out with great warmth and brilliancy upon the sandy soil, and we were glad to reach the shade of some mimosa bushes, from whence we enjoyed an extensive and beautiful view over the wide expanse of water.

It is strange that this magnificent inland sea, more than four times the size of the lake of Tiberias, should have remained in all ages so neglected and deserted. Frequent mention is made in history of the fleets which sailed on the sea of Tiberias; of the bloody naval combats which were fought upon its waters; and of the number of ships that could be equipped by the respective towns situate on its shores; but of the Dead sea we have no account which even leads us to suppose that it has ever been navigated.

It was a received tradition among the ancients, that no living thing could cross the waters, and the present inhabitants superstitiously believe that any attempt to navigate the lake will be attended with certain destruction. This notion has been greatly strengthened by the melancholy death of an enterprising young Irish traveller, who fell a victim this last summer to his curiosity in exploring these mysterious waters. He procured a boat at Jaffa, had it transported on camels to the shores of the Dead sea, and then furnishing himself with provisions and water, he embarked on the lake, with the intention of making a voyage round it. A short time afterwards he was found by some Arabs on the northern shore, insensible, and suffering under a most alarming fever and dysentry. He was immediately carried to Rihhah, and from thence transported on a litter to the Christian convent at Jerusalem, where he shortly died, notwithstanding the greatest care and all the exertions of the European medical officers attached to Ibrahim Pacha's regiments.

Along the whole extent of the shores of the Dead Sea, a circuit of between two and three hundred miles, there does not appear to be a single village, or one solitary human habitation. The eastern shore has scarcely ever been visited; it is very mountainous and rugged, and want of food and water renders it almost impassable. There is very little apparently, too, to repay the traveller for the hardships and privations of the journey.

We learn from the Mosaic account, that the waters of the Dead Sea cover the ancient vale of Siddim, in which stood the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah. Before the destruction of those two places, the vale of Siddim is spoken of in the Bible as the theatre of the great battle between Chedorlaomer and the kings of Sodom and Gomorrah, of Admah and Zeboiim, and the king of Bela. "All these were joined together in the vale of Siddim, which is the salt sea. And the vale of Siddim was full of slime pits," &c.

The vale was destroyed and the lake formed at the time when the Lord "overthrew those cities, (Sodom and Gomorrah,) and all the plain, and all the inhabitants, and that which grew upon the ground." The ruins of these cities are said to be still visible beneath the waters. The ancients had an idea that they were distinguishable; and some of their writers speak positively upon the subject. Strabo gives a circumference of sixty stadia to the ruins of Sodom. Tacitus also speaks of them, and Josephus, employing a poetic expression, says, that he perceived on the banks of the lake "the shades of the overwhelmed cities." The same notion has been adopted by the Christians; and there is a tradition among the Arab population of some great catastrophe, and of the destruction of several cities. But all these legends appear to be based upon no good foundation, and must be considered the dreams of imagination. My Arab guide, who is well acquainted with most of the country on the south, west, and north of the Dead Sea, and is