of magnesium, and almost a pound of chloride of sodium, or common salt, to the gallon.  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 wicked cities of Sodom and Gomorrah stood here some place, but authorities disagree as to whether they were at the northern or southern end of the sea.  In either case every trace of them has been wiped out by the awful destruction poured on them by the Almighty. (Gen. 18:16 to 19:29)

The Jordan where we saw it, near the mouth, and at the time we saw it, the thirteenth of October, was a quiet and peaceful stream, but the water was somewhat muddy.  We entered two little boats and had a short ride on the river whose waters “stood, and rose up in one heap, a great way off,” that the children of Israel might cross (Joshua 3:14-17), and beneath whose wave the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ was baptized by the great prophet of the Judaean wilderness. (Matt. 3:13-17.) We also got out a little while on the east bank of the stream, the only time I was “beyond Jordan” while in Palestine.  After supper, eaten in Jericho, we went around to a Bedouin encampment, where a dance was being executed—­a dance different from any that I had ever seen before.  One of the dancers, with a sword in hand, stood in the center of the ground they were using, while the others stood in two rows, forming a right angle.  They went through with various motions and hand-clapping, accompanied by an indescribable noise at times.  Some of the Bedouins were sitting around a small fire at one side, and some of the children were having a little entertainment of their own on another side of the dancing party.  We were soon satisfied, and made our way back to the hotel and laid down to rest.

The first Jericho was a walled city about two miles from the present village, perhaps at the spring already mentioned, and was the first city taken in the conquest of the land under Joshua.  The Jordan was crossed at Gilgal (Joshua 4:19), where the people were circumcised with knives of flint, and where the Jews made their first encampment west of the river. (Joshua 5:2-10.) “Jericho was straitly shut up because of the children of Israel,” but by faithful compliance with the word of the Lord the walls fell down. (Joshua 6:1-27.) “And Joshua charged them with an oath at that time, saying, Cursed be the man before Jehovah, that riseth up and buildeth this city Jericho:  with the loss of his first-born shall he lay the foundation thereof, and with the loss of his youngest son shall he set up the gates of it.”  Regardless of this curse, we read that in the days of Ahab, who “did more to provoke Jehovah, the God of Israel,