374 NOTES ON THE GEOLOGY 



Niagara in prooi oi' \\\c iinnioiisc auli(i\iily of llic present config- 

 iiraliiui 1)1' the globe in lliat region, should draw a simiku" ai'gii- 

 menl iVoiu the Wady el Jeib respeeling the region around the 

 Dead Sea. 



The seeond argunuMil in favor of the general position, tliat the 

 region arDinid the Dead Sea has not been essentially changed 

 within historic times, is derived from the character of the valley 

 of the Jordan. It is terraced tdmost exactly like the valleys 

 in primai-y regions far removed from volcanic action. And 

 the height of the upper terrace is about the same as on rivers of 

 the same size in New England. Now, although there is not an 

 entire agi'cement among geologists as to the mode in which this 

 peculiar arrangement of the sides of the valley was produced, 

 yet all agree tiiat it must have been the result of a very slow action, 

 and that the waters oi' \\io river must hav,e been concerned in re- 

 moving the matter which once lilled the valley as high as the 

 upper terrace. Nor do we find that these terraced valleys have 

 been essentially changed dm*ing the memory of man ; tliat is, the 

 terraces remain very much as they were in the earliest periods of 

 human history. No reason, therefore, can be given, why the 

 valley of the Jordan should be an exception. But had the level 

 of the country around the Dead Sea been essentially elevated or 

 depressed, the effect must have been, either to produce a perma- 

 nent inundation of the valley of the .Jordan, in case of a rise of the 

 bed of the sea ; or a sinldng down oi' the bed of the river, in case 

 of th{> depression of the sea, so, as to make its banks very high. 

 Neither of these effects have taken place in that valley (with a 

 slight exception, to be noticed below), more than in valleys in other 

 parts of the world ; and, therefore, we may infer, that no exten- 

 sive change of level has occun-ed there within historic times. 



4. Hence the theory recently proposed with much confidence, 

 that, beiore the catastrophe of Sodom and Gomorrah, the river 

 .Jordan flowed through the whole of Wady Arabah, and emptied 

 into the Red Sea at Akabah, is wholly untenable. 



5. Hence, loo, the supposition that the Dead Sea did not exist 

 previous to that event, is ecjually without foundation. 



6. Hence, likewise, the hypothesis so long in vogue, that 



