OF SEVERAL PARTS OF WESTERN ASIA. 379 



impregnation of the Dead. Sea, though Dr. Marcet does suggest 

 that it may be derived from the waters of the Jordan. 



In the remarks which I have made concerning the destruction 

 of the cities of the plain, I wish not to be understood as denying 

 the miraculous character of that catastrophe. I have inquired 

 simply what was the agency employed by the Deity to accom- 

 phsh this purpose. We know that He does not unnecessarily 

 contravene the laws of nature, but employs natural operations, 

 even for the accomplishment of what we might call a miracle. 

 As to the desti-uction of these cities, the sacred narrative does not 

 decide whether it was done miraculously, or otherwise. It does, 

 indeed, impute it to the direct agency of God ; but this is the 

 manner in which every natm-al event is spoken of in the Bible. 

 Hence we are at liberty to regard that catastrophe as natm-al or 

 miraculous, according as we can or cannot explain it by natural 

 operations. 



There are a few facts to be added respecting the subject of drift 

 in the countries that have now been under review ; but these may 

 with more convenience be connected with similar phenomena in 

 countries further north and east ; and therefore I shall defer them 

 to another place. 



I wiU close my remarks concerning Syria and Palestine, by a 

 few statements respecting a mineral water of gi*eat historical in- 

 terest, under the walls of Jerusalem, on its southeast side. It is 

 the pool of SUoam. By the recent researches of Robinson and 

 Smith, it is made certain that this fountain derives its waters from 

 the fountain of the Virgin, several hundred feet higher up the 

 valley ; and there is good reason for believing that the latter is 

 supplied, through an artificial excavation, from a well, some eighty 

 feet deep, beneath the site of the ancient Temple of Solomon ; and 

 there is some reason to believe, that the waters of this well are 

 derived from the fountain of Gihon, beyond the western wall of 

 the city ; and are conveyed to the temple (now the mosque of 

 Omar) by a deep excavation. The taste of the water, which Dr. 

 Robinson describes as " sweetish and very slightly brackish," is 

 the same in the well and in the fountain of the Virgin, as in the 

 pool of Siloam. Probably, also, Siloam is identical with the 

 King's Pool, and the Pool of Bethesda, mentioned in scripture. 



