There was no potable water on the island, and for drinking purposes the inhabitants were obliged to rely on the fall of rain, which they stored in cisterns--still in use among their descendants. In the event of prolonged drought they were obliged to send to the mainland opposite; in time of war they had recourse to a submarine spring, which bubbles up in mid-channel. Their divers let down a leaden bell, to the top of which was fitted a leathern pipe, and applied it to the orifice of the spring; the fresh water coming up through the sand was collected in this bell, and rising in the pipe, reached the surface uncontaminated by salt water.* * Renan tells us that "M. Gaillardot, when crossing from the island to the mainland, noticed a spring of sweet water bubbling up from the bottom of the sea.... Thomson and Walpole noticed the same spring or similar springs a little to the north of Tortosa." [Illustration: 249.jpg Page Image] The harbour opened to the east, facing the mainland: it was divided into two basins by a stone jetty, and was doubtless insufficient for the sea-traffic, but this was the less felt inasmuch as there was a safe anchorage outside it--the best, perhaps, to be found in these waters. Opposite to Arvad, on an almost continuous line of coast some ten or twelve miles in length, towns and villages occurred at short intervals, such as Marath, Antarados, Enhydra, and Karne, into which the surplus population of the island overflowed. Karne possessed a harbour, and would have been a dangerous neighbour to the Arvadians had they themselves not occupied and carefully fortified it.* * Marath, now Amrit, possesses some ancient ruins which have been described by Renan. Antarados, which prior to the Graeco-Roman era was a place of no importance, occupies the site of Tortosa. Enhydra is not known, and Karne has been replaced by Karnun to the north of Tortosa. None of the "neighbours of Arados" are mentioned by name in the Assyrian texts; but W. Max Mueller has demonstrated that the Egyptian form _Aratut_ or _Aratiut_ corresponds with a Semitic plural _Arvadot_, and consequently refers not only to Arad itself, but also to the fortified cities and towns which formed its continental suburbs.