The argus., 1895-12-12
THE SEA OF sODOM.
Formation Of Another Body OF
Water Like the Dead Sea-

BONE Historic Facts About the Putrefying
Waters - Although Growing Fouler
Every Year. They Arc Not
Devoid of Life.
Will there be another Sea of Sodom?
Lieut.. Lynch, of the United States
navy, has established the fact, pre-
viously not known with consummate
accuracy, that the depression of the
Dead sea (also known as the Sea of Lot
and in the Scriptures as the Salt seal is
over thirteen hundred feet below the
level of the Mediterranean, while that
of Lake Genesaret is eight hundred feet
lower than the ocean. The measure
ments were made twenty years ago, a
long period in a semi-volcanic region.
Lake Genesaret is connected with the
Dead sea by the Jordan flowing through
it from north to south, and engineers
and scientists are satisfied that the bed
of the Jordan is gradually sinking. My
observations of the shores of Lake Gen
esaret and those of the inhabitants of
the ghboring towns and villages in
dicate that the lake is continuously fall
ing toward the bottom. while the water
is becoming denser from year to year
The salt strata in its neigh borhood are
growing constantly. it seems, and sui
phur springs are becoming frequent on
the plains surrounding it. In the north
and east of the lake the palm trees,
some of them alive, more of them dead
and barren, rise above the water at a
distance of from twenty to forty feet
from shore. That they should have
taken root in the water is impossible,
and the supposition is that originally
they stood on islands submerged with
the sinking of the lakes bottom.
The catastrophe which resulted in
the destruction of the cities of Sodom
and Gomorrah and in the formation of
the Dead sea is computed to have oc-
Cured about nineteen hundred years
before Christ. The Dead sea has puz-
zled scientists ever since, and many of
its remarkable features have now been
explained. It's depression below the
level of the Mediterranean is the deep
est known on earth. The bottom of
Lake Genesaret is on n much higher
level at present, but if it continues to
sink as it has done in the last twenty
years a repetition of the events of four
thousand years ago is not improbable.
As the world has not been treated to a
spectacle of terrestrial cvolutions on a
grand scale within hundreds of years,
the creation of a second Dead sea with
in the compass of ordinary travel would
surely attract the attention of all civil
lized nations, and at the same time
help to solve many problems of scien-
tific nature.
Josephus, who was born in 81 B. c.,
reports that the water of Genesaret
was 'sclear as crystal, sweet and whole
some" 1 tried to drink of it, but found
1t putrid and nauscating. It left a
salty taste in the mouth. asked the
fishermen, plying their trade on the
lake as in Biblical days, whether the
water was always unfit for drinking
purposes, and received answer that it
grew more and more foul every year.
This seems to indicate that the sur
misses as to the change of conditions in
the lake are correct. The water of the
Dead sea, as is well known, is entirely
unfit for use by man. The stencil aris-
ing from it creates pestilcntial atmos-
phere for many miles around. l have
never been able to approach the lake
in summer, but the natives have in
formed me that about this time of the
year the water, even n foot below the
surface, acquires Il temperature of
ninety degrees. 1t has been observed
that past midnight the temperature of
the water on the surface measured in
the neighborhood of one hundred de-
grees. There is. however, one false i'm
preston in the public mind to be cor
THa SC 0f Ioo1
to animal life. Hawks, partridges,
frogs and pigeons are numerous upon
its shores, and all sorts of crawling in
sects abound there; the sluggish wa
ters, too, are covered with duclxs-in
fact, the fauna is the same as that in
habitlng the shores Of Lake Genesaret,
with this difference. however: All
specimens of the animal world about
the Dead sea are slate colored, while
Those enlivening the shores and surface
fof Lake Gencsarct wear their ordinary
Fplumage and scaly dress respectively.
The Lake Gene .aret, also called the
Sea of Tiberias or Calilee, is situated
s:xty-five miles north of the Dead sea.
Its extreme length is fifteen miles, its
greatest width six and three-fourths
miles. The water is very deep at the
shores. In some spots its depth meas
ures. one hundred and sixty feet, in
others seven hundred and fifty and
more In the northeast and northwest
the shores arc n:lt and swampy; the
mountains of Safed approach the lake
in the north; in tie Yves. we have the
hills of El-IiaminI ana Iiattin. The
volcanic plateau of Jaulaa commences
in the east: it is distinguished for many
dead craters; It's greatest height is