pages of that lively traveler. Stephens says, "It was ludicrous to see one of the horses. As soon as his body touched the water he was afloat, and turned over on his side; he struggled with all his force to preserve his equilibrium, but the moment he stopped moving he turned over on his side, and almost on his back, kicking his feet out of water, and snorting with terror." This is closely imitated by Montague, who writes, "An experiment with an ass and a horse was also made. They were separately led into the sea, and when the water came in contact with the body of the animals, it was found heavier than the body itself, and consequently supported it upon the surface. The legs of the animals being rendered useless, were brought upon the surface, and they were thrown upon their side, plunging and snorting, puzzled by their novel position."-P. 219. Now, Lieutenant Lynch, in reporting the same experiment, expressly says, that the animals were not turned on their sides; and he is at a loss to account for Stephens' statement, but by supposing that the animal was in that case unusually weak. He admits, indeed, "that the animals turned a little on one side," but adds, that "they did not lose their balance." A similar experiment was made at another time with a horse, which "could with difficulty keep itself upright." In bathing himself, the commander says, "With great difficulty I kept my feet down; and when I laid [lay] upon my back, and drawing up my knees placed my hands upon them, I rolled immediately over." We fancy that we should have in the water, was thought to show either that the experiment had not been correctly stated, or that the water had, in the course of ages, become more diluted than at the time the experiment was made. This, indeed, is one of the points in which tradition has not erred. From the impregnation of saline and bituminous matters, this water is greatly heavier than that of the ocean. This has been shown by many travelers for a hundred and fifty years past, and scarcely needs the confirmation which our explorers afford. Their long stay on the lake enabled them, however, to put together a greater number of practical illustrations of the fact. We will put a few of them together from both books. Some of the particulars almost suggest the idea of a sea of molten metal, still fluid, though cold. The sailor, who took his share in rowing, is most sensible of one of the effects which his commander less notices-the unusual resistance of the waves to the progress of the boat, and the force of their concussion against it. There was a storm of wind when the lake was first entered; and, says this writer, "the waves, dashing with fury against the boat, reminded its bold navigators of the sound and force of some immense sledgehammers, when wielded by a Herculean power." Again, he dwells on "the extraordinary buoyancy of the waters, from the fact of our boats floating considerably higher than on the Jordan, with the same weight in them; and the greater weightiness of the water, from the terrible blows which the opposing waves dealt upon the advancing prows of the boat." There was another circum-"rolled over" in any water, or even on land, stance resulting from this density, noticed by the commander, that when the sea rolled, the boats took in much water from the crests of the waves circling over the sides. Before quitting the lake, Lieutenant Lynch "Tried the relative density of the water of this sea and of the Atlantic; the latter from 25 deg. N. latitude and 52 deg. W. longitude; distilled water being as 1. The water of the Atlantic was 1.02, and of this sea 1.13. The last dissolved 1-11; the water of the Atlantic 1-6; and distilled water 5-17 of its weight of salt; the salt used was a little damp. On leaving the Jordan, we carefully noted the draught of the boats. With the same loads they drew one inch less water when afloat upon this sea than in the river."-P. 377. Of the experiments in bathing, little is added to those erewhile so graphically recorded by Mr. Stephens in his Incidents of Travels. We suspect, indeed, that Mr. Montague has drawn somewhat upon the VOL. XVIII NO. III. 22 in making that experiment. But, however, the buoyancy of this water is unquestionable; and it is clear that both man and beast may not only roll over, but roll over with impunity upon it. So in Montague's book we read "Most of the men have bathed in its waters, and found them remarkably buoyant, so that they float with perfect ease upon it, and could pick a chicken, or read a newspaper at pleasure while so floating; in fact, it was difficult to get below the surface." These, certainly, are rather luxurious ideas for the Dead Sea-floating at ease, without fear of drowning, upon a soft water-bed, picking a chicken and reading a newspaper. Nevertheless, this, like other luxuries, has its penalties-for afterwards we read, "After being in it some few hours it takes off all the skin, and gives one the miserables;' on wash ing in it, it spreads over the body a disagreeable oily substance, with a prickly, smarting sensation." Again--" Another peculiarity was, that when the men's hands became wet with it in rowing, it produced a continual lather, and even the skin is oily and stiff, having a prickly sensation all over it." Hence they washed with delight, when opportunities of fered, in the fresh-water streams that came down to the sea.-P. 181. "We had quite a task to wash from our skin all the uncomfortable substances which had clung to us from the Dead Sea, for our clothes and skin had become positively saturated with the salt water."-P. 189. But although thus unpleasant, acrid, and greasy, we are assured by Captain Lynch that the water is perfectly inodorous. And he ascribes the noxious smells which pervade the shores, not, as Molyneux supposed, to the lake itself, but to the foetid springs and marshes along the shore, increased, perhaps, by exhalations from the stagnant pools upon the flat plain, which bounds the lake to the north. Elsewhere, he contends, that the saline and inodorous exhalations from the lake itself must be rather wholesome than otherwise; and as there is but little verdure upon the shores, there can be no vegetable exhalations to render the air impure. The evil is in the dangerous and depressing influence from the intense heat, and from the acrid and clammy quality of the waters producing a most irritated state of the skin, and eventually febrile symptoms and great prostration of strength. Under these influences, in a fortnight, although the health of the men seemed substantially sound, "The figure of each had assumed a dropsical appearance. The lean had become stout, and the stout almost corpulent; the pale faces had become florid, and those which were florid, ruddy; moreover, the slightest scratch festered, and the bodies of many of us were covered with small pustules. The men complained bitterly of the irritation of their sores, whenever the acrid water of the sea touched them. Still, all had good appetites, and I hoped for the best.”—Lynch, p. 336. Remarkable effects are afforded by the saline deposits upon the shores. On the peninsula towards the south end, "There are few bushes, their stems partly buried in the water, and their leafless branches incrusted with salt, which sparkled as trees do at home when the sun shines upon them after a heavy sleet."-Lynch, p. 298. "Overhauled the copper boat, which wore away rapidly in this living sea. Such was the action of the fluid upon the metal, that the latter, so long as it was exposed to its immediate friction, was contact with the air, it corroded immediately.”— as bright as burnished gold, but when it came in Lynch, p. 344. 66 The shores of the beach before me, as I write, are incrusted with salt, and looked exactly as if whitewashed."-Lynch, p. 344. "The sands are not so bright as those of the Mediterranean and Atlantic Oceans, but of a darkish-brown color, and have the same taste as the sea-water, although it seldom distributes its waves over them."-Montague, p. 186. "We noticed, after landing at Usdum, that, in the space of an hour, our very foot-prints upon the beach were coated with crystalization." Montague, p. 207. "A book of a large octavo size, being dipped in the water, either by accident or otherwise, resisted every attempt made to dry it. I have subsequently seen it in the oven of the ship's galley on several occasions, but without any permanent effect."-Montague, p. 224. Now, as to the non-existence of living things in the water. This tradition, and that respecting the buoyancy of the water, seem to be those alone that are fully true. That creatures from the fresh-water streams that pour into the lake should die in water so essentially different-so salt, so dense, so bitter-was to be expected; but that this condition of the water should be fatal to all animal existence-that it harbored no pecuilar forms of life-seemed to require strong proof; and this has, we think, been now sufficiently afforded. This had been stated by other travelers; and being now confirmed by those who were three weeks upon the lake, may be treated as an established fact. No trace of piscatory or lower forms of aquatic life was in all that time seen in these waters. Some of the streams that run into the lake are salt. "In the salt-water streams there are plenty of fish, which, when they are unfortunately carried into the Dead Sea by the stream, or caught in their own element by the experimentalist, and thrown into it, at once expire and float. The same experiment was made and repeated at the mouth of the Jordan, with ourselves, of fish which we caught there, and cast into the sea; and nature, alike in both instances, immediately refused her life-supporting influence."-Montague, p. 223. The commander himself cites a still more extraordinary fact. In a note at p. 377, he says:— "Since our return, some of the water of the Dead Sea has been subjected to a powerful microscope, and no animalculæ or vestige of animal matter could be detected." This experiment, and proper care to secure some of the water of the lake, reminds us of a curious passage in our favorite old French traveler, Nau, who seems to regard this interest in the lake as a characteristic of Protestantism : "Before I finish this chapter, I must not omit to mention one thing that surprised me much in my two journeys. In both there were in the company some heretic merchants, who all manifested a marked devotion for this Sea of Sodom, testifying an extraordinary gladness in beholding it, and filling a large number of bottles with its water, to carry home with them, as if it had been some precious relic. I am not well able to understand the reasons of their devotion, or why they burdened themselves with so much of this water, which is of wrath and vengeance, rather than with that of the Jordan, which is a water of mercy and salvation. In fact, these men declared that there was nothing in all the Holy Land which they had seen with so much gratification." -Voyage Nouveau, p. 384. The scarcity of vegetation upon the bushes would account for the comparative absence of land birds from the lake; and the absence of fishes and other aquatic creatures from the waters would sufficiently explain the absence of aquatic fowl. There is no doubt, for these causes, some scarcity of birds here as compared with other lakes. But the notion that the effluvia of the waters were fatal to birds that attempted to pass, has been disproved during the present century by a great accumulation of evidence, which our explorers have been enabled largely to confirm. In fact, though we have long ceased to have any doubts on this point, we feel somewhat surprised at the number and variety of birds that are mentioned as found upon the borders of the lake, as flying over it, or as skimming its surface. It is scarcely worth while to multiply instances of what almost every recent traveler has noticed. One instance is sufficient and conclusive, which is, that wild ducks were more than once seen floating at their ease on the surface of the lake. The tradition, now to be treated as obsolete, probably originated in the bodies of dead birds being found on the shore or upon the water. Such were indeed three times picked up by our travelers; but Lieutenant Lynch feels assured that they had perished from exhaustion, and not from any malaria of the sea. Montague thinks they had rather been shot in their flight, and adds the interesting fact, that they were in a good state of preservation, though they appeared to have been for some time in the water. The water, he adds, seems to have the quality of preserving whatever is cast into it. Specimens of wood found there were in an excellent state of preservation. We now quit with reluctance a subject in which we feel very much interest. Lieutenant Lynch's book must be pronounced of great value, not only for the additions which it makes to our knowledge, but as the authentic record of an enterprise in the highest degree honorable to all the parties concerned. Our only regret is, that the author's avowed anxiety to occupy the book-market has prevented him from digesting his materials so carefully as the importance of the subject demanded, and has left inexcusable marks of haste, which should in any future edition. be removed. Mr. Bentley is not, in this matter, altogether free from blame; for there are numerous persons in this country whose services would have removed most of the grosser errors by which the work is disfigured. As for the other book, what we have already said, we say once more: it is a bushel of chaff, from which those who think it worth their while, and who have sufficient patience and skill, may contrive to extract a few grains of wheat. SONNET, TO ELIHU BURRITT. GREAT man! iconoclast, whose deeds betray Cities, and fields, and homes, where erst abode And give him the first taste of Heaven's pure joy. From the New Monthly Magazine. EUROPEAN LIFE AND MANNERS. European Life and Manners; in Familiar Letters to Friends. By HENRY COLMAN, Author of "European Agriculture, and the Agriculture of France, Belgium, Holland, and Switzerland." 2 vols. Boston and London. WHEN the famous Baron Munchausen | try to make the most of it. It is not often fastened his horse, one dark winter's night, that we have the opportunity of gazing upon after a deep fall of snow, to what he sup- such a "picture of private and domestic posed was the stump of a tree, and waking life." next morning saw his steed dangling from the village steeple, his surprise, as he avouches, was extreme. Apparently, how ever, the veracious baron's astonishment was scarcely greater than that of the author of the "Familiar Letters" on European Life and Manners," when he found that his friends had actually preserved the numerous epistles which he wrote to them from this side of the Atlantic during a sojourn in Europe of something more than five years. This being the case, our readers do not require to be told that "the letters were not designed for publication." Yet, after all, such was their destiny. Fate proved stronger than free-will. Their extraordinary merit had somehow got bruited abroad; many friends expressed a strong wish to possess them, and that," adds Mr. Colman, "is the reason of their publication." We cannot but think that Mr. Colman was right in yielding to the widely-extended solicitation; for, though he might have satisfied his friends by a manifold process on a large scale, or even by lithographic aid, the object which those who do not write for publication have generally in view, would hardly have been answered; the letters would not have obtained the popularity which now that they are in print seems likely to attend them; neither would the world have experienced the gratification which must necessarily follow their perusal. We learn from his preface, that Mr. Colman "had proposed a graver work than this upon European society," that he has actually begun it, and that he designs "presently to give it to the public." But, en attendant the fulfillment of this purpose, let us gratefully receive what we have got, and In painting this picture, however, Mr. Colman says that his greatest difficulty has been that his letters may be deemed too personal;" and his principal anxiety, "lest they should be thought to approach a violation of private confidence.' He certainly does make some revelations which border closely on personality, but how far he is obnoxious to the charge of violating private confidence our readers shall form their own opinion. It was, at first, Mr. Colman's determination not to publish a single name; but he "found this an idle attempt, and that individuals would be traced by circumstances, as certainly as if distinctly announced." To this account, therefore, must be placed the greater part of the startling discoveries which his volumes have made public; and all we can hope is, that the individuals whose "style of living" he has sketched with the minute pencil of a Gerard Douw, will be as lenient to him as ourselves. They ought to be so, for, according to Mr. Colman's showing, pains were most kindly taken to initiate me into those particulars; the information was, though entirely without ostentation, most kindly given; written lists of servants, and written and printed rules of domestic management, were repeatedly placed in my hands, with a full and expressed liberty to use them as I pleased." To violate private confidence, as far as these things are concerned, is consequently a difficult matter; but we will not prejudge the question. Mr. Colman gives an equally good reason for turning the knowl edge thus obtained to account. The style of living is so "wholly different from that which prevails" in the United States (of which country Mr. Colman is a citizen), and "the interest in these minute details" is so intense at Boston, New York, and other great cities of the Union, that not to have emptied the vials of his information for the benefit of the American coteries (of which Mr. Colman is now, without doubt, the idol) would have been looked upon by his countrymen-and country women-as an act of leze-majesté against the laws of politeness and good manners, which, we gather from the context of his book, appear rather to require extension in his native land. We have, ourselves, implied our obligations to Mr. Colman; but before we proceed to show why, we feel bound to mention that he states in a second prefaceas a matter deserving to stand apart-that the letters record "only a small portion of the kindness" shown him. What would have been their effect upon the public if the whole had been narrated, we almost tremble to think of. We shall now, following Mr. Colman's example, plunge in medias res. In the month of May, in the year 1843, he finds himself wandering through the streets of London, in a state of utter amazement at "the wilderness of houses, streets, lanes, courts, and kennels," in which he is suddenly located. From the particularity of his description, "where seven streets all radiated from one centre," we suspect he must have made his début in the Seven Dials; but it is no matter where, for all he meets enchants and astonishes him. He thus describes the effect produced by the vast extent of London: I have walked until I have had to sit down on some door-steps out of pure weariness, and yet have not got at all out of the rushing tide of population. I have rode [ridden] on the driver's seat on an omnibus, and there has been a constant succession of squares, parks, terraces, and long lines of single houses for miles, and continuous blocks and single palaces in the very heart of London, occupying acres of ground. I do not speak, of course, of the large parks, which, for their trees, their verdure, their neatness, their embellishments, their lakes and cascades, their waters swarming with fish, and covered with a great variety of water-fowl, which they have been able to domesticate, and their grazing flocks of sheep and cattle, and their national monuments, and the multitude of well-dressed pedestrians, and of elegantly-mounted horsemen and horsewomen, and and silver can make them, are beautiful beyond of carriages and equipages as splendid as gold I do not exag even my most romantic dreams. This is making the most of the ducks and geese in St. James's Park; but our national vanity will not suffer us to quarrel with Mr. Colman for slightly overcharging the picture. As Sir Lucius O'Trigger says, "When affection guides the pen, he must be a brute who finds fault with the style;" and the couleur de rose of Mr. Colman is of so tender a tint, that we may be pardoned if we see in it the warmth of a stronger sentiment. Was it owing to this amiable feeling, or to "the malady of not listening "-as Falstaff calls premeditated deafness-that Mr. Colman is enabled to say: "Though I have been a great deal in the streets, and in crowds without number, and have seen vexation enough in passing, I do not think I have heard a single oath since I have been in the city." (?) This is something worth noting, even although Mr. Colman had been only ten days in London when he wrote the sentence. tence. The population of London, unless it was then very differently composed, could certainly have furnished no quota of the armies which in my Uncle Toby's time swore so terribly in Flanders. We have a faint idea that the accomplishment is not altogether forgotten at the present day, but we may be mistaken; indeed, on second thoughts, we feel we must be so, for Mr. Colman tells us, a little further on, that "good manners are here evidently a universal study." But although an outward decorum is preserved, dissipation has taken deep root in the soil. "The business-shops close at ten, in general; but the ale and wine shops, the saloons, and the druggists' shops, I believe, are open all night; and the fire of intemperance, I should infer, was nourished as faithfully as the vestal fire at Rome, and never permitted to go out or to slacken." Our inference from this passage is, that those who don't or won't drink malt or sherry, indulge in intemperate draughts of spirits of wine at the druggists' shops, or they would hardly be included in the same category with the ale and wine shops. Yet again Mr. Colman finds an opportunity of excepting in favor of the Londoners: "I have scarcely seen a smoker, and as to a tobacco-chewer, not one." It is possible, we conceive, for a person to chew tobacco without being discovered-unless he is an American; but we will not inbut we had fancied that the "smokers" of sist on this point, as we are not acquainted with any one who indulges in this luxury; London were as plenty as blackberries." But in this also, it seems, we are wrong, or Mr. Colman's eyesight is on a par with his faculty of hearing. What he says of the ladies is, without doubt, equally true: 66 |