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16 On the Valley of the Jordan and the Dead Sea. 



to the foot of the Andes, was permanently upheaved. " The rise 

 upon the coast, was from two to four feet ; at the distance of a 

 mile inland, it must have been from five to six feet. The area 

 over which this permanent alteration of level extended, may 

 have been equal to one hundred thousand square miles. 



These changes and oscillations have been remarked elsewhere, 

 because the coast lines have afforded a ready means of determin- 

 ing the rise or depression of the land; while the difficulty of 

 ascertaining the alteration in the level of the interior has been 

 acknowledged by all who have turned their investigations to 

 these phenomena. How much then is this difficulty increased 

 in a country where no fixed population are found, and conse- 

 quently none of the facilities for observation exist with which 

 such a residence is attended ; the disturbing causes act there only 

 upon an uncultivated surface. There are no houses to be over- 

 thrown ; no towns whose rent walls are tottering memorials of 

 some sudden paroxysm, or whose departure from some point 

 which had not partaken of the movement, has been observed 

 and recorded. 



One of these violent catastrophes has been recorded, the over- 

 throw of Sodom and Gomorrah, an event miraculous in time, and 

 penal in its design ; but effected by causes and means by which 

 they were surrounded. Whether these cities were destroyed by 

 the inflammation of the bituminous matter upon which they were 

 built, or with which they were constructed, or whether a sudden 

 volcanic eruption, opening wide fissures through which red-hot 

 lava, " the rain of fire 77 poured, engulphing and destroying the 

 guilty cities, we cannot now determine. The account was writ- 

 ten, not to gratify curiosity, but to indicate to all times a sense 

 of the Divine justice. Perfectly compatible however with that 

 lesson, is the supposition that it was brought about by natu- 

 ral agencies. Nor is it the less signal because phenomena, sim- 

 ilar in their nature and produced by causes operating constantly, 

 though with intermitted vigor, have since appeared and may be 

 still expected to occur. 



* Journal of Science, Vol. xvn, pp. 40-45. 



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