Caspian has
shrunk only to 85 feet below the Black Sea, the Dead Sea has shrunk to
the enormous depth of 1,292 feet below the Mediterranean. Every now and
then, some enterprising De Lesseps or other proposes to dig a canal from
the Mediterranean to the Dead Sea, and so re-establish the old high
level. The effect of this very revolutionary proceeding would be to
flood the entire Jordan Valley, connect the Sea of Galilee with the Dead
Sea, and play the dickens generally with Scripture geography, to the
infinite delight of Sunday school classes. Now, when the Dead Sea first
began its independent career as a separate sheet of water on its own
account, it no doubt occupied the whole bed of this imaginary engineers'
lake--spreading, if not from Dan to Beersheba, at any rate from Dan to
Edom, or, in other words, along the whole Jordan Valley from the Sea of
Galilee and even the Waters of Merom to the southern desert. (I will not
insult the reader's intelligence and orthodoxy by suggesting that
perhaps he may not be precisely certain as to the exact position of the
Waters of Merom; but I will merely recommend him just to refresh his
memory by turning to his atlas, as this is an opportunity which may not
again occur.) The modern Dead Sea is the last shrunken relic of such a
considerable ancient lake. Its waters are now so very concentrated and
so very nasty that no fish or other self-respecting animal can consent
to live in them; and so buoyant that a man can't drown himself, even if
he tries, because the sea is saturated with salts of various sorts till
it has become a kind of soup or porridge, in which a swimmer floats,
will he nill he. Persons in the neighbourhood who wish to commit suicide
are therefore obliged to go elsewhere: much as in Tasmania, the
healthiest climate in the world, people who want to die are obliged to
run across for a week to Sydney or Melbourne.

The waters of the Dead Sea are thus in the condition of having already
deposited almost all their gypsum, as well as the greater part of the
salt they originally contained. They are, in fact, much like sea water
which has been boiled down till it has reached the state of a thick
salty liquid; and though most of the salt is now already deposited in a
deep layer on the bottom, enough still remains in solution to make the
Dead Sea infinitely salter than the general ocean. At the same time,
there are a good many other things in solution in sea water besides
gypsum