other portions of the narrative. We have still another inci- 
dental remark, which helps us to identify the site of the cities : 
“ The vale of Siddim was full of pits of asphalt.” Now, there 
is no part of the valley north of the lake to which this would 
apply; nor, indeed, is there any part of the plain adjoining the 
lake, north or south, now full of bitumen-pits. 
31. The third passage is Gen. xix. 24, 25 : “ Then the Lord 
rained upon Sodom and upon Gomorrah brimstone and fire 
from the Lord from the skies. And He overthrew those cities, 
and all the plain, and all the inhabitants of the cities, and that 
which grew upon the soil.” We are afterwards informed that 
Abraham on the following morning went from his camp at 
Hebron to a neighbouring mountain-peak, and “ looked out 
upon Sodom and Gomorrah, and upon all the land of the plain, 
and behold, and lo, the smoke of the land went up as the 
smoke of a furnace.” 
32. There can be no doubt from these statements that the 
destruction of the cities was miraculous. A shower of ignited 
sulphur was rained upon them. But may we not connect this 
fact of Biblical history with the facts stated above as observed 
by Canon Tristram and others ? May we not admit that while 
the ultimate cause was miraculous, natural agencies were em- 
ployed ? We might suppose a mass of burning sulphurous 
matter to have been ejected from some open crater, as is often 
the case with Vesuvius; and this falling in showers upon the 
cities, and the bituminous plain around them would have pro- 
duced just such form of conflagration as Abraham saw from 
the heights of Hebron. Bitumen is very inflammable, and 
the plain of Siddim was filled with bitumen-pits. Canon 
Tristram says of Wady Mahawat, at the side of the plain, that 
“ the whole appearance points to a shower of hot sulphur, and 
an irruption of bitumen upon it.” The smoke from such a 
conflagration would be like the smoke of a furnace, and would 
cover the whole plain. Then the sacred writer says that the 
vale of Siddim became the Salt Sea, or was submerged. The 
southern part of the lake is, as I have shown, an expanse of 
slimy mud, covered with only a few feet of water. Suppose 
the vale to have sunk a few feet, or the water to have risen a 
few feet, after the conflagration ; either supposition would 
accord with the Biblical narrative, would not be without a 
parallel in the history of countries exposed to volcanic erup- 
tions, and would not be opposed to the results of modern 
investigations. 
33. This was the view taken by the late Dr. Robinson, of 
New York, and sanctioned by Leopold von Buch. Robinson 
says : “ It seems to be a necessary conclusion that the Dead 
