38 BERTHA'S VISIT TO HER 



the thick layer of salt, and the quantity of shells 

 -which are every where found under the soil, 

 they say there can be no doubt that it was once 

 the bed of the sea. I asked what could have 

 driven the sea out, if ever it had been there ? 

 But he said there was no difficulty in that ; for 

 rivers and narrow seas are continually changing 

 their boundaries by the sand which their tides 

 and currents throw up ; and as soon as ever the 

 Red Sea had washed up a new barrier at Suez, 

 evaporation in that climate would rapidly dry the 

 part that had been cut off. 



It has been asked, were there not ledges of 

 rock lying across the Red Sea, on which, when 

 the tide was out, the Israelites might have 

 forded it. " But," says my uncle, "if we do 

 not believe the transaction to have been miracu- 

 lous, we may as well not believe it all ; for the 

 event, as well as the miracle, rest on precisely 

 the same authority. At the same time, do not 

 suppose that I wish to discourage these inquiries ; 

 they are of considerable use ; they lead to the 

 investigation of facts, and the more strictly the 

 Bible is examined, the more we shall be satisfied 

 of its truth. The attention of the celebrated 

 travellers Niebuhr and Bruce was particularly 

 directed to that question ; and they distinctly 

 assert that there are no rocks there whatever." 



My uncle concluded the conversation by saying, 

 " Many of the Fathers have supposed it to have 



