133 



Some of these bricks had, on one side, an unknown inscription ; and 

 on the other, the bitumen adhered ; and, on those parts which were 

 not covered by bitumen, on the other side, -the marks of matting 

 appeared, on which it was supposed they had been placed to dry. 



From every concurrent testimony, we have, therefore, reason to 

 conclude, that bitumen was the tenacious substance which the sa- 

 cred historian meant to describe, as the substitute for mortar, em- 

 ployed by the builders of the town of Babel. Nor can it be ob- 

 served, without considerable pleasure, that these discoveries serve 

 strongly to evince the high degree of fidelity which pervades the 

 Mosaic history. 



Strabo, who speaks of the ruins of Sodom, which, he says, 

 were sixty furlongs in compass, and were then to be seen on the 

 shores of the Dead Sea, relates, that the waters of the lake Sirbon 

 are so heavy in their nature, that those who attempt to dive in 

 them, are raised up as soon as they sink as low as the navel *. It is 

 full of bitumen, which rises from the bottom in bubbles, like those of 

 boiling water, giving to the waved surface of the lake an ap- 

 pearance as if little hills were arising from it. The bitumen, he 

 supposes to have been liquified by heat, and then diffused and con- 

 densed in the water, on which it floats from the peculiar nature of 

 the water ; and is afterwards obtained by the neighbouring inhabi- 

 tants, who for this purpose were rowed to it on rafts )-. 



Causabon, Lancisius, in his Notes on Mercatus's Metallotheca, 

 and others, are of opinion that Strabo has here, by some mistake, 

 attributed to lake Sirbon, that assemblage of curious circumstances 

 which more properly belonged to the lake Asphaltin. Indeed his 

 description, of which a sketch only is here given, corresponds very 

 nearly, in every particular, with that given by Diodorus Siculus of 

 the last mentioned lake. 



* Strubonis Geogr. lib. xv. f Ibid. lib. xvi. 



