แ

The peninsula itself, as seen from the western side of the sea, appears much like a long low sand-bank. But according to the same travellers, who passed quite around its northern horn, and then along its western edge nearly or quite to its southern extremity, such is not its general character. Its middle part consists of a steep white ridge running like a spine down the centre. This ridge presents steep sloping sides, seamed and furrowed into deep hollows by the rains, and terminating at the summit in sharp triangular points, standing up like rows of tents ranged one above another. The whole is of a substance apparently partaking of the mixture of soft and broken chalk and slate, and is wholly unproductive of vegetation. The height of the eminence varies from ten to about thirty feet, becoming gradually lower towards its northern extremity." The opposite sides of this cliff present faces of similar appearance and equal height; while adjacent to the isthmus it spreads out into broader table-land.

The length of the peninsula on the eastern side, from the head of the northern bay to the northern extremity, they found to be one hour and twelve minutes; and on the western side, from the north end to the strait, or the point overagainst the western shoal, two hours and forty minutes. The breadth of the peninsula and isthmus, from the strait to the stream of the Dera'ah, was also two hours. The breadth of the strait they estimated at one mile; which, I apprehend, is much too small.-At the foot of the high ground, or cliff, all around, "is a considerable margin of sand, which varies in length and breadth according to the season; being much wider in summer than in winter, when there is reason to suppose that the waves almost wash the base of the cliff." This becomes broader

1) Irby and Mangles, p. 452.

2) Ibid. pp. 453, 455.

3) Ibid. p. 452.

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towards the strait, and here " a very considerable level is left, which is encrusted with a salt that is but half dried and consolidated, appearing like ice in the commencement of a thaw. All this space is soft, and gives way nearly as deep as the ankle, when it is trod on.””

Along the shore of the northern bay also, the travellers found deposites of salt, and persons gathering it; and near the northern point of the peninsula they collected lumps of nitre and fine sulphur, apparently brought down by the rains from the low cliff above.2— Around the southern end of the peninsula, where we saw a short horn and a bay beyond, "the high-water mark was at this season a mile distant from the water's edge." This was on the 2d of June.

The Ford. The first notice of a ford near the south end of the Dead Sea is also from Seetzen. He describes it from the information of the Arabs, as practicable only in summer, and as requiring five hours for the passage. In his map, it is laid down as leading from the peninsula to the northern part of Usdum, south of the pass of Zuweirah. Burckhardt heard the same report of a ford, which might be crossed in three hours and a half.5 As however the Arabs have no notion of hours, both these specifications are of little value. In the plan of Irby and Mangles the ford is laid down across the narrowest part or strait, between the peninsula and the western shoal or tongue of land; where indeed we should naturally look for it.

So remarkable a feature of the sea of course engaged our attention; and we made all the inquiries in our power respecting it. The Arabs who were with us at 'Ain Jidy, both of the Ta'âmirah and the Rashâideh, who dwell chiefly towards Tekoa and Beth

1) Irby and Mangles, p. 453. 2) Ibid. pp. 451, 453.

3) Ibid. p. 455.

p. 437.

4) Zach's Monatl. Corr. XVIII. 5) Travels, p. 394.

lehem, knew nothing of any ford. Our Sheikh of the Jehâlîn, who was with us at the south end of the sea, affirmed that the water in the strait, between the peninsula and the opposite tongue of land, was very deep, and never fordable. But from the southwest part of the sea, he said, (apparently from near the pass of Zuweirah,) to the south side of the peninsula, he himself had forded the lake many years ago; although now, and since several years, the water was too deep to be forded. This account corresponds to the ford as laid down on Seetzen's map; and at the time, we had no reason to distrust its accuracy. But Irby and Mangles relate, that in descending from Kerak to the peninsula, they fell in with a small caravan going to Hebron by way of the ford; and while the travellers were examining the northern part of the peninsula, this caravan crossed it to the strait, which they forded. travellers soon after arrived at the same point, saw the ford "indicated by boughs of trees," and observed the caravan just landed on the opposite side. They could discern the species of animal, as well as the people on their backs; and as there were asses of the party, the depth could not be great.1

The

These varying accounts I am not able to reconcile; except by supposing, as above, that the waters of the Dead Sea, as seen by those travellers in the year 1818, were at their very lowest ebb. In this way, perhaps, they might admit here for the time a ford not known. or not remembered by the Arabs of the western coast; and give to the peninsula and the adjacent shoals a different form.

Apples of Sodom. One of the first objects which attracted our notice on arriving at 'Ain Jidy, was a tree with singular fruit; which, without knowing at

1) Irby and Mangles, p. 454.

the moment, whether it had been observed by former travellers or not, instantly suggested to our minds the far-famed fruits

"which grew

Near that bituminous lake where Sodom stood."

This was the 'Ösher of the Arabs, the Asclepias gigantea vel procera of botanists,' which is found in abundance in Upper Egypt and Nubia, and also in Arabia Felix; but seems to be confined in Palestine to the borders of the Dead Sea. We saw it only at 'Ain Jidy; Hasselquist found it in the desert between Jericho and the northern shore; and Irby and Mangles met with it of large size at the south end of the sea, and on the isthmus of the peninsula.2

We saw here several trees of the kind, the trunks of which were six or eight inches in diameter; and the whole height from ten to fifteen feet. It has a grayish cork-like bark, with long oval leaves; and in its general appearance and character, it might be taken for a gigantic perennial species of the milk-weed or silk-weed found in the northern parts of the American States. Its leaves and flowers are very similar to those of the latter plant; and when broken off, it in like manner discharges copiously a milky fluid. The fruit greatly resembles externally a large smooth apple or orange, hanging in clusters of three or four together; and when ripe is of a yellow colour. It was now fair and delicious to the eye, and soft to the touch; but on being pressed or struck, it explodes with a puff, like a bladder or puff-ball, leaving in the hand only the

1) Sprengel Hist. Rei Herbar. I. p. 252.

2) Hasselquist Reise, p. 151. Irby and Mangles' Travels, pp. 354, 450. Comp. Seetzen in Zach's Monatl. Corresp. XVIII. p. 442. Burckhardt, p. 392.

3) Irby and Mangles found them "measuring, in many instances, two feet or more in circumference, and the boughs at least fifteen feet in height; a size which far exceeded any they saw in Nubia." P.

450.

shreds of the thin rind and a few fibres. It is indeed filled chiefly with air, like a bladder, which gives it the round form; while in the centre a small slender pod runs through it from the stem, and is connected by thin filaments with the rind. The pod contains a small quantity of fine silk with seeds; precisely like the pod of the silk-weed, though very much smaller; being indeed scarcely the tenth part as large. The Arabs collect the silk and twist it into matches for their guns; preferring it to the common match, because it requires no sulphur to render it combustible.'

The most definite account we have of the apples of Sodom, so called, is in Josephus; who, as a native of the country, is a better authority than Tacitus or other foreign writers. After speaking of the conflagration of the plain, and the yet remaining tokens of the divine fire, he remarks, that "there are still to be seen ashes reproduced in the fruits; which indeed resemble edible fruits in colour, but on being plucked with the hands, are dissolved into smoke and ashes." In this account, after a due allowance for the marvellous in all popular reports, I find nothing which does not apply almost literally to the fruit of the 'Ösher, as we saw it. It must be plucked and handled with great care, in order to preserve it from bursting. We attempted to carry some of the boughs and fruit with us to Jerusalem; but without success.1

1) Gregory of Tours would seem to have heard of this tree: “ Prope Jericho habentur arbores, quae lanas gignant; exhibent enim poma in modo cucurbitarum, testas in circuitu habentia duras, intrinsecus autem plena sunt lanae." Of this wool, he says, fine garments were made. Gregor. Turonens. Mirac. lib. I. c. 18.

2) The Bible speaks only of the "vine of Sodom;" and that metaphorically. Deut. xxxii. 32.

3) Joseph. B. J. IV. 8. 4, Este dè

κἂν τοῖς καρποῖς σποδιὰν ἀναγεννωμένην, οἱ χρόαν μὲν ἔχουσι τοῖς ἐδωδίμοις ὁμοίαν, δρεψαμένων δὲ χερσὶν εἰς καπνὸν ἀναλύονται καὶ τέφραν.—Tacitus is still more general: Hist. V. 6, "Terramque ipsam specie torridam vim frugiferam perdidisse. Nam cuncta sponte edita, aut manu sata, sive herbae, tenues aut flores, ut solitam in speciem adolevere, atra et inania velut in cinerem vanescunt."

4) Seetzen was the first, I believe, to suggest the 'Ösher (which