Lartet on the Asphalt of the Bead Sea. 65 



bottom of tlie Dead Sea or on its shores, or along the Valley 

 of the Jordan, we believe that they are connected with a 

 system of thermal, saline, and bituminous springs which extend 

 along the major axis of the dislocation of the basin. This 

 conviction rests first on the alignment of bituminous deposits 

 along the same axis on which we find the rare representatives 

 of springs which seem to have been connected with extinct 

 volcanic phenomena : secondly, on the presence, verified by 

 M. Hebard, of bitumen in the limestones, from whence 

 emerge the thermal and saline springs of the Tiberiad, in 

 which Dr. Anderson found bromine associated with organic 

 matter; thirdly, on the analyses of the water of the Dead 

 Sea, which, according to M. Terreil, contains an organic 

 matter having the characteristic odour of bitumen, and which 

 is particularly abundant in the neighbourhood of Has Mersed, 

 whose odours of sulphuretted hydrogen are noticed by all 

 travellers, and which is the place signalized for its bitumen by 

 Strabo. 



" As at Eas Mersed the bitumen has penetrated the fissures 

 of the calcareous rocks on the banks, and is found in the 

 saline deposits in a little grotto very near this point, everything 

 leads to the supposition that there still exists one of those 

 submarine springs which in former times emitted considerable 

 masses of bitumen, and which now confine their operation to 

 exceptionally enriching the water in bitumen, chlorides, and 

 bromides, and so disengaging sulphuretted hydrogen gas. 



" In thus unfolding the reasons which lead to the belief 

 that the bitumen has been brought by the hot and saline 

 springs, and that it has impregnated the limestones after their 

 deposit, we do not intend to decide the question whether this 

 bitumen has been brought up direct from the depths, or 

 whether the hot springs met with carbonaceous matter in 

 their course, and reacted upon it. It is known that there 

 exists in the Lebanon, in the system of sandstones below the 

 cretaceous rocks which are impregnated with bitumen, con- 

 siderable masses of lignite, of which the analogues may have 

 existed in the Anti-Libanus and in the Dead Sea. In this 

 hypothesis, which supports the observation of traces of 

 vegetation found by Dr. Anderson in Dead Sea asphalt, the 

 heated waters may have been able to extract from the lignites 

 their hydro-carbon products, such as M. Daubree has been 

 able to show in his beautiful experiments illustrative of meta- 

 morphism. 



te However this may be, we see in the preceding facts a 

 fresh confirmation of the laws of association, connecting 

 deposits of bitumen with salt, gypsum, hot springs, and vol- 

 canic phenomena. 



vol. x. — NO. I. F 



