OF SEVERAL PARTS OF WESTERN ASIA. 365 



cardia ; probably the I. co., of Goldfuss, Tal). 141, fig. 2. No. 

 142, from the spot where St. Paul was shipwrecked, appears to 

 be a limestone of an older date than those above described, if we 

 may judge from its somewhat crystalline texture. 



Unstratified Rocks and Volcanic Action in Syria and 



Palestine. 



It has long been a favorite theory with many Christian writers, 

 that- the cities of Sodom and Gomon-ah, Admah and Zeboim, 

 were destroyed by a volcanic eruption ; and that, indeed, the 

 Dead Sea did not previously exist ; and that formerly the river 

 Jordan flowed into the Red Sea at AJcabah. The statements of 

 travellers, in former times especially, respecting the vicinity of the 

 Dead Sea, have seemed in a good measm'e to confirm these hy- 

 potheses. The peculiar character of the waters of that sea, their 

 entire destitution of animal life, the great depth at which that 

 lake lies below the frowning black and naked moLintains around, 

 and the general sterility and desolation which reign there, as 

 well as the savage character of the few wandering Bedouin 

 Arabs who inhabit the region, all give such an impression of the 

 penal curse which seems to rest upon it, that the minds of travellers 

 appear to have been generally overwhelmed with awe and amaze- 

 ment, and rendered incapable of calm and scrutinizing observa- 

 tion. But within a few years past, a different set of observers 

 have given us then* reports, and none of them more trusty ones 

 than our own countrymen, whose names have been already men- 

 tioned ; and the geologist now possesses perhaps the materials 

 for deciding some of the points above stated. The subject of 

 volcanic action in those countries becomes, on account of its his- 

 torical associations, of great interest ; particularly as to the time 

 of its occun'ence. 



In order to form correct opinions on these subjects, it will be 

 necessary briefly to describe that long valley, or gulf, called el 

 ArabaJi, extending from the Red Sea at Akabah, to the Dead 

 Sea, and thence along the river Jordan to the mountains of Anti- 

 Lebanon ; a distance of nearly two hundred and fifty miles. Its 



