64 Lartet on the Asphalt of the Bead Sea. 



the time of the Egyptian conquest, when shallow pits were 

 sunk and a tolerably rich deposit arrived at, the debris of which 

 we found on the margin of the pits. 



" Besides this series of bitumen deposits of which are 

 ranged in echelon on the long axis of the basin of dislocation, 

 as well on the western bank of the Dead Sea. As on reascend- 

 ing the course of the Jordan, we found considerable traces of 

 it, at the same geological level, in the inoceramous limestones 

 of Khalwet, in the Anti-Libanus, between Hasbeya and 

 Rascheya, and even in the approaches to Damascus ; but the 

 alignments of these last deposits departed considerably from 

 the direction of the axis of the basin of the Dead Sea to 

 arrange itself along the chain of the Anti-Libanus, and to 

 direct itself towards analogous deposits of Mesopotamia and 

 Persia — as if they would serve to unite these last with the 

 long series of bituminous emanations passing by the Dead 

 Sea, the point of Sinai, and the mountain of I/Huile, in 

 Egypt. 



""Much attention has been given to the origin of the frag- 

 ments of asphalt which the Dead Sea throws up on its banks, 

 and from its analogy with that of Hasbeya, it has been 

 thought that it was brought down by the waters of the Jordan, 

 forgetting that although bitumen is lighter than the water of 

 the Dead Sea, it is much heavier than that of the Jordan, and 

 that this river must have deposited it on its own banks in the 

 course of so long a journey. It has also been supposed that 

 vast sheets of bitumen, accumulated at the bottom of the Dead 

 Sea, after hardening, have become detached and floated to the 

 surface. This hypothesis is not justified by the numerous 

 soundings made by the American expedition, nor by those of 

 the Duke de Luines' expedition in which we had the honour 

 to take part. 



11 Lastly, Dr. Anderson had a notion that under the bitu- 

 minous deposit of Nebi-Musa there existed considerable layers 

 of asphalt, intercalated with calcareous rocks, and the pro- 

 longed outlines of which stretched under the Dead Sea, and 

 yielded to the erosive action of its waters the specimens which 

 travellers noticed on its shores. This opinion does not appear 

 to us more admissible than its predecessors. We do not see 

 why the fragments of bitumen dispersed on the banks, and of 

 which no trace is found in the ancient alluvium or the ancient- 

 deposits of the Dead Sea, should not come in part from the 

 debris of these floating islands of asphalt, as well as, perhaps, 

 from the disintegration of the bituminous rocks which the 

 waters of the Wady-Mahawat and those of Wady-Sebbeh 

 bring down at certain seasons. 



" As for the occurrence of bituminous emanations in the 



