ASPHALTITES

ASPHALTITES, so called from the great quan-
tity of bitumen it produces; called also the Dead Sea; and from its situation, the East Sea; the Salt Sea, the
Sea of Sodom, the Sea of the Desert, and the Sea of the
Plain, by the sacred writings: A lake of Judea.

Many things have been said and written of this famed,
or, if they were indeed true, rather infamous lake; such
as that it arose from the submergence of the vale of Siddim,
where once flood, as is commonly reported, the three
cities which perished in the miraculous conflagration,
with those of Sodom and Gomorrah, for their unna-
tural and detestable wickedness: on which account this
lake has been looked upon as a lasting monument of
the just judgment of God, to deter mankind from such
abominations. Hence it is added, that the waters of
the lake are so impregnated with salt, sulphur and
other bituminous stuff, that nothing will sink or live in
it; and that it casts such stench and smoke, that the
very birds die in attempting to fly over it. The de-
scription likewise of the apples that grew about it, fair
without, and only ashes and bitterness within, were
looked upon as a farther monument of God's anger.
So likewise the description which many travellers give
not only of the lake, but of all the country round
about, of the whole appearing dreadful to behold, all
sulphureous, bituminous, stinking and suffocating:
and lastly what hath been farther affirmed of the ruins
of the five cities being still to be seen in clear weather,
and having been actually seen in these latter times; all
these surprising things, and ill-grounded notions, tho'
commonly, and so long, received among Christians,
have been of late so much exploded, not only by the
testimony of very credible witnesses, but even by argu-
ments drawn from scripture, that we must give them
up as inventions, unless we will suppose the face and
nature of all these things to have been entirely chan-
ged. Those, in particular, of bodies not sinking in the
water, and of birds being stifled by the exhalations of
it, appear now false in fact. It is true, the quantity
of salt, alum and sulphur, with which it is impreg-
nated, render it so much specifically heavier (Dr Pococke
says one-fifth) than fresh water, that bodies will not so

easily sink: yet that author, and others, assure us, Asphaltites.
they have swam and dived in it; and, as to the
birds, we are told likewise, that they will fly over it
without any harm. To reconcile these things with
the experiments which Pliny * tells us had been made
by Vespasian, is impossible, without supposing that
those ingredients have been since much exhausted,
which is not at all improbable; such quantities of
them, that is, of the bitumen and salt, having been all
along, and being still taken off, and such streams of
fresh water continually pouring into it, as may reason-
ably be supposed to have considerably diminished its
gravity and denseness. For, with respect to its salt, we
are told, the Arabs made quantities of it from that
lake, in large pits about the shore, which they fill with
that water, and leave to be crystallized by the sun.
This salt is in some cases much commended by Galen,
as very wholesome, and a strengthener of the stomach,
&c. on account of its unpleasant bitterness.

What likewise relates to the constant smoke ascend-
ing from the lake, its changing the colour of its water
three times a day, so confidently affirmed by Josephus†
and other ancients, and confirmed by Prince Radziville
and other moderns, who pretend to have been eye-
witnesses of it, is all now in the same manner exploded
by others of more modern date, and of at least equal
candour. The unhealthiness of the air about the lake
was affirmed by Josephus and Pliny, especially on the
west: the monks that live in the neighbourhood con-
firm the same, and would have dissuaded Dr Pococke
from going to it on that account; and, as he ventured
to go and bathe in it, and was, two days after, seized
with a dizziness, and violent pain in the stomach
which lasted near three weeks, they made no doubt
but it was occasioned by it; and he doth not seem to
contradict them. As to the water, it is, though clear,
so impregnated with salt, that those who dive into it
come out covered with a kind of saline matter. There
is one remarkable thing relating to this lake, generally
agreed on by all travellers and geographers; viz.
that it receives the waters of Jordan, a considerable
river, the brooks of Jabbok, Kishon, Arnon, and other
springs, which flow into it from the adjacent moun-
tains, and yet never overflows, though there is no visible
way to be found by which it discharges that great in-
flux. Some naturalists have been greatly embarrassed to
find a discharge for these waters; and have therefore
been inclined to suspect the lake had a communication
with the Mediterranean. But, besides that we know of
no gulph to corroborate this supposition, it has been
demonstrated by accurate calculations, that evapora-
tion is more than sufficient to carry off the waters
brought by the river. It is, in fact, very considerable;
and frequently becomes sensible to the eye, by the fogs
with which the lake is covered at the rising of the sun,
and which are afterwards dispersed by the heat. It is
inclosed on the east and west with exceeding high
mountains, many of them craggy and dreadful to be-
hold. On the north it has the plain of Jericho; or, if
we take in both sides of the Jordan, it has the Great
Plain, properly so called, on the south; which is o-
pen, and extends beyond the reach of the eye. Jo-
sephus gives this lake 580 furlongs in length, from the
mouth of the Jordan to the town of Segor, on the op-
posite end, that is about 22 leagues; and about 150
furlongs,

Asphaltites. furlongs or 5 leagues, in its largest breadth: but our modern accounts commonly give it 24 leagues in length, and 6 or 7 in breadth. On the west side of it is a kind of promontory, where they pretend to show the remains of Lot's metamorphosed wife. Josephus says it was still standing in his time; but when Prince Radziville inquired after it, they told him there was no such salt pillar or statue to be found in all that part. However, they have found means, about a century after him, to recover, as they pretended to assure Mr Maundrell, a block or stump of it, which may in time grow up, with a little art, into its ancient bulk.

It is to be observed here, that the name of Dead Sea is not to be found in the sacred writings; but hath been given to this lake because no creature will live in it, on account of its excessive saltness, or rather bituminous quality; for the Hebrews rank sulphur, nitre, and bitumen, under the general name of salt. However, some late travellers have found cause to suspect the common report of its breeding no living creature; one of them having observed, on the shore, two or three shells of fish like those of an oyster, and which he supposes to have been thrown up by the waves, at two miles distance from the mouth of the Jordan, which he there takes notice of, lest they should be suspected to have been brought into the lake by that way. And Dr Pococke, though he neither saw fish nor shells, tells us, on the authority of a monk, that some sort of fish had been caught in it; and gives us his opinion, that as so many sorts live in salt-water, some kind may be so formed as to live in a bituminous one. Mr Volney, however, affirms, that it contains neither animal nor vegetable life. We see no verdure on its banks, nor are fish to be found within its waters. But he adds, that it is not true that its exhalations are pestiferous, so as to destroy birds flying over it. "It is very common (says he) to see swallows skimming its surface, and dipping for the water necessary to build their nests. The real cause which deprives it of vegetables and animals is the extreme saltness of the water, which is infinitely stronger than that of the sea. The soil around it, equally impregnated with this salt, produces no plants; and the air itself, which becomes loaded with it from evaporation, and which receives also the sulphurous and bituminous vapours, cannot be favourable to vegetation: hence the deadly aspect which reigns around this lake. In other respects, the ground about it, however, is not marshy; and its waters are limpid and incorruptible, as must be the case with a dissolution of salt. The origin of this mineral is easy to be discovered; for on the south-west shore are mines of fossil salt, of which I have brought away several specimens. They are situated in the side of the mountains which extend along that border; and, for time immemorial, have supplied the neighbouring Arabs, and even the city of Jerusalem. We find also on this shore fragments of sulphur and bitumen, which the Arabs convert into a trifling article of commerce; as also hot fountains, and deep crevices, which are discovered at a distance by little pyramids built on the brink of them. We likewise find a sort of stone, which, on rubbing, emits a noxious smell, burns like bitumen, receives a polish like white alabaster, and is used for the paving of court-yards. At intervals, we also meet with unshapen blocks, which prejudiced eyes mistake for mutilated

statues, and which pass with ignorant and superstitious Asphaltites, pilgrims for monuments of the adventure of Lot's Asphaltum. wife; though it is no where said she was metamorphosed into stone like Niobe, but into salt, which must have melted the ensuing winter."

It is on account of this bitumen that it hath had the name of Asphaltite Lake, it being reported to have thrown up great quantities of that drug, which was much in use among the Egyptians, and other nations, for embalming of dead bodies. Josephus assures us, that in his days it rose in lumps as big as an ox without its head, and some even larger. But, whatever it may have formerly done, we are assured by Mr Maundrell and others, that it is now to be found but in small quantities along the shore, though in much greater near the mountains on both sides the lake. But the contrary is since affirmed by two or more late travellers; the one of whom tells us, that it is observed to float on the surface of the water, and to come on the shore, after windy weather, where the Arabians gather it, and put it to all the uses that common pitch is used for, even in the composition of some medicines: and another tells us, he was there informed, that it was raised at certain times from the bottom, in large hemispheres, which, as soon as they touch the surface, and are acted upon by the external air, burst at once, with great noise and smoke, like the pulvis fulminans of the chemists, dispersing themselves about in a thousand pieces. From both these judicious authors we may conclude the reason of Mr Maundrell's mistake, both as to the lake's throwing it up only on certain seasons (that reverend gentleman might chance to be there at the wrong time); and likewise as to his not observing it about the shores, seeing the Arabs are there ready to gather it as soon as thrown up: all of them describe it as resembling our black pitch, so as not to be distinguished from it but by its sulphurous smoke and stench when set on fire; and it hath been commonly thought to be the same with that which our druggists sell under the name of bitumen Judaicum, or Jewish pitch, though we have reason to think that this last is fictitious, and that there is now none of the right asphaltum brought from Judea.

It hath, moreover, been confounded with a sort of blackish combustible stone thrown on the shore, and called by some Moses's stone, which, being held in the flame of a candle, will soon burn, and cast a smoke and intolerable stench; but with this extraordinary property, that though it loses much of its weight and colour, it becoming in a manner white, yet it diminishes nothing of its bulk. But these, Dr Pococke tells us, are found about two or three leagues from the shore. He concludes, however, from it, that a stratum of that stone under the lake is probably one part of the matter that feeds the subterranean fire, and causes the bitumen to boil up out of it.