arid the smroundi?ig District. .53.3 



cano, situated to the south-east of the lake, was the immediate 

 cause of this scourge ; but it is now either extinct, or in the 

 phase of prolonged intermittence. 



The wells of naphtha, and the hills of sulphur, are spoken 

 of by every traveller ; and, in some places, the soil is so impreg- 

 nated with these inflammable substances, that it only requires 

 the application of a burning torch to set it on fire. In various 

 parts of the Holy Land, lava has been employed in the con- 

 struction of roads. Pumice, obsidian, and ashes are scattered 

 over the face of the country ; and craters have been discovered 

 in various parts, among rocks of porphyry and syenite ; and it 

 appears probable that the igneous nature of the district, the 

 native country of the fire-worshippers, had some effect in 

 forming the religious opinions of the idolaters who chose it 

 for their residence. 



Dr. Daubeny has given a very interesting account of this 

 district, in his work on volcanoes; but in some particulars we 

 differ from him as to the origin of the Dead Sea. 



" I should suppose," says the doctor, " that the same vol- 

 cano which destroyed the cities of the plain threw out, at the 

 same time, a current of lava sufficiently considerable to stop 

 the course of the Jordan ; the waters of which, unable to 

 overcome the barrier, accumulated in the plain Siddim, until 

 they converted it into the present lake." The natural ter- 

 mination of the river was thus altered ; its estuary, which he 

 supposes to have before opened into the Elanitic branch of 

 the Red Sea by Akaba, was entirely destroyed; and the waters 

 which it brought down from the mountains of Antilibanus 

 were dissipated by evaporation from the Dead Sea, which is 

 a mere accumulation of them : its extent being determined by 

 the temperature of the air, which induces evaporation from its 

 surface in a direct proportion to the quantity brought into 

 that sea by the Jordan and other streams. 



Although we admit, in its general outline, the geological 

 picture which Dr. Daubeny has drawn of the Holy Land 

 before the catastrophe which destroyed the cities of the plain, 

 there is one feature in which he is, perhaps, misled ; and that 

 is, in assigning to the Jordan a southerly direction. He 

 speaks of a great longitudinal valley, discovered by Burck- 

 hardt, as the channel through which its waters were once 

 discharged. But the probability is, we think, that this river 

 was either lost before it reached Akaba, or it turned to the 

 west after passing through the Vale of Siddim, and fell into 

 the Mediterranean Sea. For we cannot imagine that so small 

 a river as the Jordan, fed by so few auxiliary streams, could 

 find its way through the broad gorges [outlets] of El Araba and 



n iM 3 



