SCYTHOP'OLIS, the biblical Bethshan or Bethshean, belonging to the tribe of Manasseh; 2 m, w. of the Jordan, and 12 m. s. of the sea of Galilee. The name Sey t:iodolis is not known at the present day, but the ancient town and name are found in the modern Beis:tn. It was once the seat of a Christian bishop, and during the crusades, of an archbishopric. It contains now but 60 or 70 houses. Extensive ruins of the It.leiCnt city are found.
SEA, in its general signification:. denotes that large expanse of salt water which covers the more depressed portion of the earth's surface, fills up each hollow and rift to a certain uniform level, completing as far as possible the spheroidicity of the and divides its surface into two great and innumerable smaller portions—the Old ani New Worlds and their islands. This immense body of water is not distributed with toe least approach to regularity, but here forms a huge basin, there becomes a long and tortuous inlet or strait, which narrows or widens as the configuration of the land-surface °a each side permits; nor is it placed symmetrically to the earth's axis of rotation; for the hemisphere of which the s.w. corner of England is the center or pole contains the w.iole of the land-surface, if we except the triangular portion of South America, s. of Uruguay, Australia. New Zealand, the most of the East Indian islands, and the land around the s. pole (of unknown extent). The other hemisphere is, with these excep tioas, wholly water., From this irregular distribution of the sea over the earth's surface, an.1 from the specific gravity of water being about of that of the land, it necessarily follows th tt the center of gravity of the whole globe does not correspond accurately with its center of figure. The extent of sea-surface is estimated at 144,712,850 English s or nearly of the whale of the earth's surface, ant its mass, on the suppositioa of an average dep.h. of 2 na., is about -that of dm wh de, globe; such estimates however, can be considered at best as only roagh approximations. One of the most re:nark-Ode features of the sea is its continuity or oaencss; for in spite of the fact that large stretches of salt water, as the sea of Azof, Black, Mediterranean, and B iltic seas. the golf of Mexico, and others, have barely avoided becoming detache 1 lakes, very sueh are found on the earth's surface; and with the execptioa of tie Gasman and Aral seas, they are of small size.
Conpositioa, S ncitic Gravity, awl Terre mrature of the &a.—The ocean consists of salt water, and from its continual motion, under the influence of currents and waves, pre serves, generally speaking, uniform saltness. Under special circumstances, however, we find the saltness increased, as by the excess of evaporation over the fresh-water in1 ix in the M oliterninean and Red seas, and about the northern and southern limits of the tropical belt; and decreased, by the contrary cause, in the sea of Azof, Black sea, B attic sea, and in the polar regions. See TRXDE-WINDS, The origin of the saltness of the sat is sutliciently accounted for when we coasider that the chlorid of sodium an.1 other soluble salts which form constituent ingrelients of the globe are being constantly washed out of the soil and rocks by rain and springs, and carried down by the rivers; and as the evaporation which feeds the rivers carries none of the dissolved matter back to the land, the tendency is to accumulate in the sea. The principal ingredients found in sea-water ore chloride of sodium, or common salt, together with salts of magnesia and lime. A more exact analysis will be given under Warstn. The average specific gravity of the sea. out of reach of the exceptional action of the melting of snow, rain, or river water is (at 62' Farin-.) 1.02655. The slight variations in the saltness of the sea must necessarily produce corresponding changes in its specific gravity; accordingly, on the northern and southern limits of the torrid zone, the mean specific gravity of the sea is, is different longitudes, 1'02785, 1'0268; while at the equatorial calm belt it is 1.0252, 1.0267; amt on time whole shows a tendency to diminish as the latitude increases, Beechey having found it to be 1.0258 in lats. 55' to 60' n. and s. in the Pacific, and King in the corresponding latitudes of the Atlantic. It is considerably diminished near the mouths of rivers, and in those inlets or semi-lacustrine arms which are the depositories of more river-water than compensates for their evaporation, as in the Black sea, where it is 1.0143, and in the Baltic, only 1.0086.