While exploring the shores of the Salt Sea, I saw evidence which convinced me that its waters are still receding. A terrace of gravel stretches from the base of the salt cliffs outwards towards the margin of the sea to a distance, in some places, of 30 yards; it then abruptly terminates in a descent of about 5 feet to the line of drift wood which marks the upper limit of the waters. That the gravel terrace was originally the bed of the Salt Sea does not admit of a doubt, so that since it was laid dry the waters have fallen to the extent (5 feet) above indicated. The formation of this terrace must be of very recent date, but that may be over a thousand years. When the waters covered the terrace they washed the base of the cliffs of the salt mountain, which they do not now appear to be ever able to reach.
We lunched on this terrace by the shores of the sea, in which some of our party were courageous enough to bathe. My aneroid marked 32° 1′, which, according to the determination of the Ordnance Survey, would mean for that day 1,292 feet below the level of the Mediterranean.
Leaving the shores of the Salt Sea, and the northern extremity of the Jebel Usdum, we crossed the stony bed of the Muhauwat, which sometimes sweeps down from the interior, and is joined by that of the Zuweirah, so that the combined effects of these torrents is to cover an area of about half-a-mile with great piles of shingle and large blocks of limestone and chert. Here it was that Canon Tristram started a herd of twenty-two gazelles; but we were not so fortunate.
As the sun was now approaching the horizon, and we had done a good deal in the way of exploration, we would gladly have camped at the base of the hills to the north of Jebel Usdum, but the time at our disposal did not permit of so leisurely a progress. Our stations had been arranged beforehand, and our mules with the tent-equipage were far in advance; it was therefore necessary to press onwards, and we turned our horses' heads up the bed of the Wâdy Zuweirah, along which the only practicable path to Beersheba and Gaza lies. The pathway through the windings of this ravine was steep, and often difficult, owing to the slippery surface of the limestone ledges; but our good steeds never lost their footing. Often the walls of rock, constructed of beds of limestone and dark chert,[1] rose high above our heads, while the terraces of marl, sand, and gravel, belonging to the ancient Salt Sea bed, might be observed clinging to the sides of the older formation, and running up the branching ravines to a level of about 600 feet above the waters of the Salt Sea. It was clear from the relations
- ↑ Chert is a silicious stone often found in limestones, and like flint is very hard.
