one, called the Bahret-el-Kibliyeh, receives the rest of the Barada water, which enters it by three or four branches on its northern and western sides.  The most southern, known as Bahret-Hijaneh, is the receptacle for the stream of the Awaaj, and takes also the water from the northern parts of the Ledjah, or region of Argob.  The three lakes are in the same line—­a line which runs from N.N.E. to S.S.W.  They are, or at least were recently, separated by tracts of dry land from two to four miles broad.  Dense thickets of tall reeds surround them, and in summer almost cover their surface.  Like the Bahr-el-Melak, they are a home for water-fowl, which flock to them in enormous numbers.

By far the largest and most important of the salt lakes is the Great Lake of the South—­the Bahr Lut ("Sea of Lot"), or Dead Sea.  This sheet of water, which has always attracted the special notice and observation of travellers, has of late years been scientifically surveyed by officers of the American navy; and its shape, its size, and even its depth, are thus known with accuracy.  The Dead Sea is of an oblong form, and would be of a very regular contour, were it not for a remarkable projection from its eastern shore near its southern extremity.  In this place, a long and low peninsula, shaped like a human foot, projects into the lake, filling up two thirds of its width, and thus dividing the expanse of water into two portions, which are connected by a long and somewhat narrow passage.  The entire length of the sea, from north to south, is 46 miles:  its greatest width, between its eastern and its western shores, is 101 miles.  The whole area is estimated at 250 geographical square miles.  Of this space 174 square miles belong to the northern portion of the lake (the true “Sea"), 29 to the narrow channel, and 46 to the southern portion, which has been called “the back-water,” or “the lagoon.”

The most remarkable difference between the two portions of the lake is the contrast they present as to depth.  While the depth of the northern portion is from 600 feet, at a short distance from the mouth of the Jordan, to 800, 1000, 1200, and even 1300 feet, further down, the depth of the lagoon is nowhere more than 12 or 13 feet; and in places it is so shallow that it has been found possible, in some seasons, to ford the whole way across from one side to the other.  The peculiarities of the Dead Sea, as compared with other lakes, are its depression below the sea-level, its buoyancy, and its extreme saltness.  The degree of the depression is not yet certainly known; but there is reason to believe that it is at least as much at 1300 feet, whereas no other lake is known to be depressed more than 570 feet.  The buoyancy and the saltness are not so wholly unparalleled.  The waters of Lake Urumiyeh are probably as salt and as buoyant; those of Lake Elton in the steppe east of the Wolga, and of certain other Russian lakes, appear to be even salter.  But with these few exceptions (if they are exceptions), the Dead Sea water must be pronounced to be the heaviest and saltest water known to us.  More than one fourth of its weight is solid matter held in solution.  Of this solid matter nearly one third is common salt, which is more than twice as much as is contained in the waters of the ocean.