Also, before my departure for Syria I bad asked M. Lortet for the fullest information as to the exact site of these great depths, intending to explore them from the zoological point of view with much care. According to the directions which the learned Dean of the Faculty of Medicine of Lyons willingly gave me, my researches were to be especially carried on in the northern portion of the basin, in a line with the Wady Semakh and facing the northern mouth of the Jordan: it is, in fact, in the axis of the river that I found—in accordance with Molyneux—the most considerable depth.
But in spite of the most patient endeavours I found it impossible to discover the depths described by Lortet; in vain I traversed in every direction the northern portion of the lake, crossing and recrossing my line of soundings, the lead never marked more than 42 metres.
These soundings were made according to six principal axes:—
1st. From Tiberias to the northern mouth of the Jordan;
2nd. From Tiberias to Wady Fik;
3rd. From Hammam to Wady Semakh;
4th. From the northern mouth to the southern mouth of the Jordan;
5th. From the northern mouth of the Jordan to Wady Semakh;
6th. From the northern mouth of the Jordan to Wady Fik.
I have given them on the accompanying map, which is the reproduction, reduced by photography (the scale being given in metres), of Macgregor's map, No. VII;[1] only some slight modifications have been made in the outline according to Schumacher's recent traces (The Jaulân, loc. cit.). The study of this document will show, I think, that depths of 250 metres could scarcely have escaped my investigations. Certainly these soundings have not the positive value which they would have had if they had been made by a professional man, and I have not marked scientifically the precise point of every line, but I operated as carefully as possible, with the aid of a compass and chronometer. It will be observed also that nearly always my figures agree with those which are given, after Molyneux and Van de Velde, on Macgregor's map, and which are indicated in upright figures on the accompanying map. Besides my results positively confirm the statements of the fishermen, who, in response to all my questions, did not cease to assert that the maximum depth of the lake did not exceed 40 metres, and that it was necessary to seek for it towards the middle of the lake between Tiberias and Wady Semakh.
- ↑ I have also given Molyneux's soundings as they figure on Macgregor's map; but I think it is as well to remark that these soundings must have been indicated by the English author in a rather arbitrary fashion, for the configuration of the lake on Van dc Velde's map (which contains the first so-called soundings) differs considerably from that on Macgregor's map, especially in the southern portion of the basin. Nevertheless, as I remark further on, Molyneux's figures, even on Macgregor's map, agree nearly always with mine.
