The Ottawa free trader. [volume] (Ottawa, Ill.) 1843-1916, 1874-06-13
THE DEAD SEA.
Genesis INDICATED.

The modern traveller who leaves the Mcdi
telranean steamer AT Jatfa, the port Of Syria,
and passes southwardly into the interior,
over the rough limestone mountain ranges,
finds himself in the region of Jerusalem,
! some $500 feet above the level of the Medi-
terranean and as he continues his course to
the southeast, he comes, at about 80 miles
from his starting point, to what is admitted
to be the most remarkable scene, geologically
and geographically, in the whole world.
For, already having assembled . 500 feet above
| the Mediterranean at his back, he finds him.
self looking down into what seems to be IL
! tissure in the earth's surface rather than Il
valley, and then 1000 feet below HIM, as he
| fronts eastward, is another sea, stretching
north and south irregularly in length some
| 40 miles, and east AID west some 10 miles
| broad. II has the appearance OF an immense
mirror laid in the bottom Of huge chasmi
fer its waters, in themselves heavy and slug.
| gish by reason of their STARVATION with salt
and asphalt, seem far below the reach of any
wlEds to rutile their surface. The meridian
sun glazing down upon Its bare shores and
upon the bald brown limestone cliffs, which
rise on either side OF il, seems to make the
IOverhanging atmosphere glow a. furnace.
Few signs Of yerdure are seen anywhere i'll
what 1t would seem ought to be a sheltered
garden, las the garden OF the Lord" And
the most profound impression of dreary des-
olation fills the behOlder as he gazes down
upon 1t.
1t he inquire Of the scientific men for the
meaning OF this singular phenomenon-a sea
within go miles OF the Mediterranean, yet ly-
ing at depth of 300 feet below the level of
that great sea, though separated from it by a
mountainous belt OF country whose average
level towers mole than 300 feet above the
great sea itself-and the meaning OF this sin
gu!ar desolatlOn around the hot basin INTO
which the Jordan flows, he finds that though
it has been the subject of wonder and learned
speculation for three thousand years, and OF
thorough investigation by the most accom-
plIshcd engineers and scientists of modern
Europe and America, the great problem OF
accounting for the wonder from natural
causes is still as unsettled as ever That
while, indeed, the legends of noXous vapors
arising from tie lake which destroy the
binds that attempt to fly over it; of the zap
plies of Sodom," that turn into bitter ashes
in the mouth of the eater, which grew on the
shores;
"Ol that btumous lake where Socom Stood"
of the pillar of salt" which Is still said to
have been seen among the saline crystaliZa-
tons OF its beach, and of the vision OF the
tower and gorgeous palaces" Of some vast
city in the depth Of mysterious water-while
all these have by the clear light OF modern
science been compelled TO fit back into the
dim realms Of myth and poetic legend; still
the question, what natural causes could have
produced these singular phenomena? seems
no nearer an answer For time the favorite
theory of the scientific world was that here
had occurred lightning flash, which set on
fire the vast bitumen deposits. Next came
The more scientific theory that here had oc-
cured an earthquake IN the assure through
which the Jordan once flowed onward to an
outlet in an arm of the Red Sea, and stopped
he river in its course to empty into this deeper
earthquake rent This was BurkhaIdtS the
Ory in 1916 Next came the denial of this
theory by the judcious DR.. Edward Robin
son, on the geological ground that the slope
Of the whole country Is not from this toward
the Red Sea, but from the Red Sea down to
this Dead Sea, and the propounding OF new
theory that there always existed such sea
in the Jordan valley, but of much smaller
ciIcult, whose bottom, upheayed by some vol
canlC action, caused il 10 overflow the area
also in which once stood the cities of the
plain, to the south of the lake. But against
this last theory are urged the apparent insu-
perabe objections first that all ancient his
tory and tradition combine with the brief
record of Scripture to show that the cities OF
the plain were not at the southern border OF
the Dead Sea; and second, that neither is the
geological element of this theory in accord
with subsequent scientific investigation, nor
with the language of the 10Th Genesis.
The more recent examination oil Lieut..
Lynch, of the American navy, however, led
him to the same conclusion with Burkhardt
in 1916, and this conclusion was fortified
with a remarkable proof; for his careful
of the Dead Sea showed traces of
a rivcr-bed still existing in the bottom OF the
Dead Sea, running the same general dlrec-
ton with the Jordan, and also with the Va
dyclJciJ, l. C., the ravine running on the south
to the Red Sea His inference Is that III the
described in the 18th Genesis,
the whole valley of Jordan sank l,3OO feet
along the whole vale of Siddim. He cites
also other proofs of this fact.
I'VE entered upon the sea- says Lieut..
Lynch, with conflicting opinions. One oil
the party was skeptical, and the other pro
feSsed unbeliever in the Mosaic account.
After twenty-five days of close investigation,
if mistake not, we were unanimous in the
conviction Of the truth Of the sCriptural &C
count of the destruction of the cities of the
plain"
Aside from this examination los an engin-
Ger, the geological evidence Is said 10 be