The Destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah. 369 



tt would appear, that, even antecedently to the eruption men- 

 tioned in Scripture, bitumen pits abounded in the plain of Sid- 

 dim. Thus, in the account of the battle between the kings of 

 Sodom and Gomorrah, and some of the neighbouring princes 

 (Gen. ch. xiv), it is said, — And the Vale of Siddim wasfvll of 

 slime-pits, which a learned friend assures me ought to be trans- 

 XoXed. fountains of bitumen. 



Mr Henderson, in his Travels in Iceland, will have it, that 

 phenomena similar to those of the geysers of Iceland, existed 

 likewise in this neighbourhood. The word Siddim, he says, is 

 derived from a Hebrew root, signifying " to gush out,'' which 

 is the identical meaning of the Icelandic word geyser ; and it is 

 remarkable, that there exists in Iceland a valley called Geysa- 

 dal, which signifies the Valley of Geysers, and consequently 

 corresponds with the '' Valley of Siddim." The latter, therefore, 

 he thinks should be translated the Valley of the Gushing Moun- 

 tains. 



Mr Henderson further believes, tliat Sheddim, the object of 

 the idolatrous worship of the Israelites, (Deut. xxxii. IT. 

 Psalms cvi. 37) translated in our version " devils," were boil- 

 ing springs derived from volcanoes ; and I may add, as some lit- 

 tle corroboration of this opinion, that somewhat similar phenome- 

 na at the Lucus Palicorum in Sicily, were the objects among 

 the Greeks of peculiar and equally sanguinary superstition. 



Mr Henderson thinks, that it was in imitation of these na- 

 tural fountains, that Solomon caused to be constructed a num- 

 ber of jetting fountains (as he translates the passage), of which 

 we read in Ecclesiasticus, cap. xi. viii. My ignorance of the 

 Hebrew language precludes me from forming any opinions as to 

 the probability of these conjectures ; but the existence of hot 

 springs in the valley, at a much later period than that to which 

 he refers, is fully established. 



But besides this volcanic eruption, which brought about the 

 destruction of these cities, it would appear that the very plain 

 itself in which they stood was obliterated, and that a lake was 

 formed in its stead. This is collected, not only from the appa- 

 rent non-existence of the valley in which these cities were placed, 

 but likewise from the express words of Scripture, where, in 

 speaking of the wars which took place between the Kings of 



JULY OCTOBER 1826. A a 



