treme saltness and other qualities of its water.
Mines of fossil salt are found in the sides of the
mountains, which supply the neighbouring Arabs,
and the city of Jerusalem ; also fragments of sul-
phur and bitumen, which the Arabs convert into
trifling articles of commerce. This lake, called
also Lake Asphaltites, and by the Turks and
Arabs Almotana, has no outlet; and it has been
demonstrated, that evaporation is more than suffi-
cient to carry off the water brought in by the
rivers. It was on the site of this lake that Sodom
and Gomorrah, and three other cities were situate,
which were destroyed by a miraculous conflagra-
tion about 1,900 years antecedent to the Christian
xc2xaera.

Deadman's Head, a cape on the south coast of
England, in Cornwall, between St. Mawes and
Fowey.

Deal, a town in Kent, Eng. It is seated be-
tween the North and South Foreland, and is a
member of the cinqub port of Sandwich, governed
by a mayor. It has no harbour, but the sea be-
tween the shore and the Godwin Sands, called the
Downs, is generally a secure road for ships, where
they usually ride at their Raving or entering the
river Thames. The port is defended by two
castles, Deal or Walmer Castle to the south, and
Sandown Castle to the north ; and also by several
batteries. The mariners of Deal are considered
most intrepid seamen, but there being no port
regulations, strangers embarking or disembarking
in the Downs, are exposed to the most wanton
and unjustifiable impositions, whilst the induce-
ments to smuggling, which the unparalleled rates
of taxation in England excite among the inhabi-
tants of this part of the coast, on account of its
proximity to the continent, makes the seamen as
desperate and vicious as they are crafty and im-
posing. The town of Deal is 9 m. N. of Dover,
and 74 E. by S. of London. Pop. in 1821, 6,811.

Dean, a celebrated forest in Gloucestershire,
Eng. which originally included all that part ofthe
county which lies between the Severn and the
shires of Monmouth and Hereford, and contained
four market towns and twenty-three parishes. It
is fertile in pasture and tillage, bears very fine
oaks, and has rich mines of iron and coal. It was
once reckoned the chief support of the English
navv: but having been much thinned by fre-
quency of felling, and narrowed by increase of
cultivation, it was near losing all features of its
former character, until within the present century,
when a still extensive tract, containing a popula-
tion exceeding 5,500, has been replanted and re-
plenished with deer, and divided into six walks,
extra par'-chial, over which proper rangers have
tinn appointed. There is a village without the
boundary of the present forest, one mile north of
Newnbam. culled Little Dean, containing, in 1821,
807 inhabitants ; and contiguous is Mitchel Dean,
at which a market was formerly held on Mon-
davs. Fop. in lr21, 556.

*,* There are ten other villages in different
parts of England named Dean, all inconsider-
able

Dearborn, a frontier conntv at the south-east
extremity of the state of Indiana. Lawrenceburg,
the principal town, is seated on. a point of land
formed by the junction of the Miami with the
Ohio River. The county is about 30 m. from
south to north, and 15 in mean breadth. The
N. E. part borders on the state of Ohio, and the

S. E. on that of Kentucky. Pop. 14,578. Law-
renceburg is the chief town

Dearborn, ph. Kennebec Co. Me. Pop. 616.

Debalpoor, a town of Hindoostan, capital of a
district in the country of Moultan. It is situatp
on the great road from Delhi to Moultan, near the
river Setlege, 80 miles south of Lahore, and 170
east hy north of Moultan. Long. 73. 32. E., lat.
30. 5. N.

Dehen, a river in Suffolk, Eng. which rises near
Debenham, and flows to Woodbridge, whore it
expands into a long narrow arm of the German
Ocean, a little to the north of Harwich.

Denbenham, a town in Suffolk, Eng. seated on
the side of a hill, near the source of the Deben 24
m. east of Bury St. Edmunds, and 83 N. E. of
London. Pop. in 1821,1,535.

Debretzin, a town of Upper Hungary, capital of
a district of the same name, and one of the most
populous and important trading towns in all Hun-
gary. It was taken by the.Turks in 1684, and the
Austrians retook it the same year. It is 107 m,
E. of Buda. Long. 21.38. E., lat. 47.34. N.

Decatur, ph. Otsego Co. N. Y. Pop. 1,110. Also
towns in Mifflin Co. Pa., Morgan Co. Alab.,
Adams and Brown Cos. Ohio.

Deccan, an extensive tract in Hindoostan, which
from the signification of its name, the South, has
been supposed to include the whole region south
of Hindoostan Proper. But, in its more accepted
sense, it contains only the countries situate be-
tween Hindoostan Proper, and what is termed the
Peninsula; namely, the provinces of Candeish,
Dowlatabad, Visiapour, the north part of Golcon-
da, Berar, Orissa, and the Circars. It is bounded
on the north by the river Nerbudda, by Bengal,
and by Bahar; and the river Kistna forms its
separation on the south from what is called the
peninsula of Hindoostan. All this vast country
was once the southern province of the Moguls,
who did not pass the Kistna till a recent period.
Candeish, Visiapour, and a part of Dowlatabad,
Berar, and Orissa are subject to the Mahrattas.
The English have part or Orissa and of the Cir-
cars. The dominions of the Nizam of the Deccan
comprising Golconda, the principal part of Dow
latabad, and the western part of Berar. His ter-
ritories are bounded on the north-west by the
Poonah Mahrattas, north by the Berar Mahrattas,
east by the Circars, and south by the Carnatic and
Mysore. By a family succession in 1780 the
Nizam became possessed of the districts of Adom
and Tachore, and of the Gunto or Circar; and
by the peace of 1792 and partition of 1799 he had
a share of the countries belonging to Tippoo Sul-
tan, including Kopaul, Cuddapa, Gangecoha,
Gooty, and Gurrumconda. His dominions (with-
out including the cessions) are supposed to be
430 miles from N. W. to S. E. by 300 wide. The
capital is Hydrabad.

Deeize, a town of France, in the department of
Nievre, seated on an island, at the conflux of
the Airon with the Loire, 16 miles S. E. of Nevers.

Deckendorf, a town of Lower Bavaria, seated
on the Danube, 27 miles.N. W. of Passau.

Decherstown, p.v. Sussex Co. N. J.

Deddington, a town in Oxfordshire, Eng. 16 m.
north of Oxford, and 69 W. N. W. of London.
Pop. in 1821, 1,847.

Dedham, a town in Essex, Eng. with a manufac-
ture of haize. It has an ancient large church,
with a curious steeple, and a free grammar-
school endowed by queen Elizabeth. It is seated
on the Stour, 8 m. N. N. E. of Colchester,
and 58 N. E. of London. Pop. in 1821, 1.651.

Dedham, a town of Massachusetts chief of