394 Death of Dr. Seetzen. 



tory; but hU most interesting tour was througli tlie plains of tlie 

 Hauran, east of the river Jordan, and the Dead Sea ; a wide and 

 iiow desert tract, cliiefly peopled by wandering Bedouin tribes, 

 though abounding with ruined cities, and traces of former opu- 

 lence and cultivation, in canals, bridg'.^s, and other put)lic works 

 of utility As it was a district, too, entirely unknown to Euro- 

 peans, his researches as a naturalist were abvuulantlv successful ; 

 and the scientific world had much to hope fioni liis discoveries 

 even here, particularly in his n)ineralogical ac(|uisitions, and his 

 examination of the shores and waters of the lake A-iphaltes, con- 

 cerning which so many pious falsehoods had been circulated, to 

 gratifv the taste of those who still believed the hissing bubbles of 

 the burning brimstone that swallowed Sodom and Gomorrah to 

 be visible, and who devoutly inferred that no animal could sus- 

 tain without suffocation the fumes sent up by this sink of pa- 

 triarchal abomination. 



" In Egvpt, the labours of Dr. Seetzen were chiefly directed 

 to researches of science, particularly in correcting the errors of 

 Sonnini as a naturalist, and exploring the vast field which that 

 interesting country offers to the geologist and the agricultural 

 observer. 



*' At Cairo, where he remained some months occupied in the 

 arrangement of his materials, specimens and observations, he 

 was personally known to most of the European inhabitants, who 

 iniiversallv speak of him as a man of extensive general informa- 

 tion, profound scientific knowledge, extraordinary qualities of 

 disposition, in the union of patience, fortitude enterprise, and 

 gentleness of manners, and possessed of every qualification likely 

 to insure success. 



" From Egvpt he appears tohave sent to Vienna all the valuable 

 specimens which he had been enabled to collect in the diflferent 

 departments of science, as Avell as copious observations on the 

 sacred and literary antiquities of Palestine, and the manners of 

 the Bedouin tribes who range the extensive plains of the eastern 

 deserts: on both of which subjects his inquiring turn of mind, 

 and invincible emancipation from the shackles of vulgar preju- 

 dice, enabled him to exercise a clear unbiassed judgement, and 

 to give the best and most impartial account of them that has 

 ever been written, since the intelligent remarks of the philoso- 

 phic Volney. 



" Iloreb and Sinai, as the venerable mount of early miracle, 

 from amid the lightning of whose terrific brow the thunders of 

 the Decalogue were first rolled forth, next attracted Dr. Seetzen's 

 attention ; but although he was not successful in discovering the 

 rock from whose cleft the murmuring Israelites were watered, 

 the blackened soil of the burning bush, and the many other 



scenes 



