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 ASIA. Under this head in the Encyclopædia, there is a general survey of Asia and its Divisions, and of the prevailing manners, religions, and institutions of its chief Communities. We have, in this volume, already treated in a general way of those grand Divisions of our Globe, and , and notwithstanding the extent of the space devoted to in the body of the work, the recent acquisitions to our knowledge of that Continent might also, without impropriety, have been made the subject of a supplemental article in this place; but as these additions are more susceptible, than in the case either of or, of being separately introduced under the names of particular Countries and Islands, we shall, in order to save room for other matters, adopt that course in regard to the recent improvements in Asiatic geography.

it is proper to mention, that the best of the later Geographers have separated a vast number of Islands formerly described as Asiatic Islands, from that Continent, and arranged them with a multitude of other Countries and Islands to the south of Asia, and in the Pacific Ocean, under the two new divisions of and. The grounds of this arrangement, which was first suggested by the learned President des Brosses, are stated with sufficient clearness by Mr Pinkerton, in his introductory observations on the Islands; and the reader of this work will also find them explained under our articles on and.

We may here observe generally, that a great deal yet remains to be done in order to complete the geography of Asia. Its central mountains, perhaps the most stupendous masses on the Globe, present a wholly unexplored field of inquiry; the origin, the course, and progressive increase of some of its greatest rivers, remain still to be ascertained; and scarce any of its internal seas, except the Caspian, has been the subject of actual survey. The interior regions of Siberia require much illustration. The same may be said, and perhaps in a still stronger degree, of the central parts of Tartary, of the northern parts of China, and of those of India. As to the probable population of this Continent, it is enough to say, that differences of a hundred millions exist in regard to that of China alone. From all this it appears how very defective our knowledge is of this important Division of the Globe, and what a vast and varied field it still presents to incite the inquiries, and reward the enterprise of future Explorers. ASPHALTITES, a Lake of Judea, near Jerusalem, so called from the Bitumen which floats upon its surface; and equally well known under the name of the Dead Sea;—a name associated with many fables, and derived from a long standing belief, that no creature could live in its waters, or within the reach of its pestiferous exhalations.

The reader will find the substance of the ancient accounts, and those of the earlier Travellers in regard to this famous Lake, in the article under its name in the Encyclopædia; we shall therefore confine ourselves in this place, to such authentic particulars, as have been furnished by the observations and inquiries of those who have recently visited the Holy Land.

This Lake is supposed to be from sixty to seventy miles in length, and from ten to twenty in breadth. It is curved like a bow, and placed between two ranges of mountains, of lofty and majestic appearance. But the grandeur of its features is blended with an air of sadness and desolation, which seems to accord well with the marvellous stories associated with its name.

Some of these fables have an obvious foundation in its physical properties. Its taste is remarkably bitter, saline, and pungent; and hence has arisen the notion of its pestiferous vapours and deadly influence. We are told even by Volney, that its waters are destructive both of animal and vegetable life; but he denies that its vapours have any deadly quality, for swallows, he says, are often seen to skim its surface without injury. M. De Chateaubriand, who visited its shores in 1807, with an imagination abundantly disposed to the marvellous, has given the first decided testimony that it abounds with fish. He reached the Lake when it was already dark, and passed the night among some Arab tents. “About midnight,” says he, “I heard a noise upon the Lake, and was told by the Bethlehemites who accompanied me, that it proceeded from legions of small fish which come out and leap about on the shore.” This interesting Traveller speaks in the following terms of its saline properties: “The first thing I did on alighting was to walk into the Lake up to my knees, and to taste the water. I found it impossible to keep it in my mouth. It far exceeds that of the sea in saltness, and produces upon the lips the effect of a strong solution of alum. Before my boots were completely dry, they were covered with salt: our clothes, our hats, our hands, were in less than three hours impregnated with this mineral.”

The common story, that nothing will sink in it, is to be ascribed to the extraordinary density of its waters. Bodies follow the general law, and sink or swim, according to the proportion of their gravity to the gravity of the water of the Lake; but its specific gravity is such, that a man may lie upon its surface motionless, without danger of sinking. This effect was experienced by Pococke, and by a Scottish traveller, Mr Gordon of Clunie, who also bathed in it. This gentleman brought home a phial of its water, and Dr Marcet found its specific gravity to be 1.211; a degree of density, says he, “not to be met with in any other natural water.” Dr Marcet was employed to analyse Mr Gordon’s specimen, which that gentleman had presented to Sir Joseph Banks in 1807; and the whole process, with its results, is detailed in the Philosophical Transactions for that year. It was found that 100 grains of the water contains the following substances, in the under-mentioned proportions: