" But to have
kept the things now would have shown suspicion too plainly, and as I
could not bring myself to do that, I gave them up. I have sometimes
thought that I was a fool to do so.
I went away by myself to the end of the island, and then I did
bathe. It is impossible to conceive anything more desolate than the
appearance of the place. The land shelves very gradually away to
the water, and the whole margin, to the breadth of some twenty or
thirty feet, is strewn with the debris of rushes, bits of timber,
and old white withered reeds. Whence these bits of timber have come
it seems difficult to say. The appearance is as though the water
had receded and left them there. I have heard it said that there is
no vegetation near the Dead Sea; but such is not the case, for these
rushes do grow on the bank. I found it difficult enough to get into
the water, for the ground shelves down very slowly, and is rough
with stones and large pieces of half-rotten wood; moreover, when I
was in nearly up to my hips the water knocked me down; indeed, it
did so when I had gone as far as my knees, but I recovered myself;
and by perseverance did proceed somewhat farther.
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