large mass of bitumen (one said like an island, another like a house) was discovered floating on the sea, and was driven aground on the west side, not far to the north of Usdum. . . (Numbers of persons swam off to it, and cut it up with axes, so as to bring it ashore. Others hearing of it, and going to get a share, found seventy men already upon and around it.). . . It was carried off by camel loads, partly up the pass of Engedi, and sold by the Arabs."

"The above information may serve to illustrate the account of Josephus, that 'the sea in many places sends up black masses of asphaltum, (bitumen,) which float upon the surface, having the form and size of headless oxen."-ROBINSON's Researches, vol. ii.

"I have visited many scenes of desolation, (writes Mr. Hardy, describing the scenery of the Dead Sea,) but this surpasses them all; yet this very spot, we are assured by Scripture, was once as the garden of the Lord, like the land of Egypt.' The sea is called in sacred writ the Salt Sea, the Sea of the Plain, and the East Sea. It occupies what was formerly the valley of Siddim, in which stood the five cities of the plainSodom, Gomorrah, Admah, Zeboim, and Bela. These guilty cities were utterly destroyed by the righteous vengeance of the Lord, and their very sites have been hid from the face of heaven by waters that are alone among all the waters of the world. The awful prophecy of Moses must needs, when considered amid the scene that here presents itself, bring fear to the mind of the sinner, and conviction to that of the sceptic. 'The stranger that shall come from a far land shall say, when they see the plagues of that land, and the sicknesses which the Lord hath laid upon it, and that the whole land thereof is brimstone, and salt, and burning, that it is not sown, nor beareth, nor any grass groweth therein, like the overthrow of Sodom and Gomorrah, Admah and Zeboim, which the Lord overthrew in his anger and in his wrath; even all nations shall say,

Wherefore hath the Lord done thus unto this land? What meaneth the heat of this great anger? Then men shall say, Because they have forsaken the covenant of the Lord God of their fathers.'1 The Israelites refused to listen to the warning voice, and the prophecy has been fulfilled in the utmost force of its terrible import. 'It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.'"-HARDY's Notices of the Holy Land, pp. 203,

204.

"Apples of Sodom.-One of the first objects which attracted our notice on arriving at Engedi, was a tree with singular fruit, which, without knowing at the moment whether it had been observed by former travellers or not, instantly suggested to our minds the far-famed fruits

This was the 'Ösher of the Arabs .

which is found in abundance in Upper Egypt and Nubia, and also in Arabia Felix, but seems to be confined in Palestine to the borders of the Dead Sea."

"We saw here at Engedi several trees of the kind, the trunks of which were six or eight inches in diameter ; and the whole height from ten to fifteen feet. It has a greyish cork-like bark, with long oval leaves and when its leaves and flowers are broken off, it discharges copiously a milky fluid. The fruit greatly resembles externally a large smooth apple or orange, hanging in clusters of three or four together, and when ripe is of a yellow colour. It was now fair and delicious to the eye, and soft to the touch; but on being pressed or struck, it explodes with a puff, like a bladder or puffball, leaving in the hand only the shreds of the thin

1 Deut. xxix. 22-25.

rind and a few fibres. It is indeed filled chiefly with air, like a bladder, which gives it the round form ; while in the centre a small slender pod runs through it from the stem, and is connected by thin filaments with the rind. The pod contains a small quantity of fine silk with seeds, precisely like the pod of the silk-weed, though very much smaller. The Arabs collect the silk, and twist it into matches for their guns, preferring it to the common match, because it requires no sulphur to render it combustible."

.

"The most definite account we have of the apples of Sodom, so called, is in Josephus After speaking of the conflagration of the plain, and the yet remaining tokens of the divine fire, he remarks, that there are still to be seen ashes reproduced in the fruits; which indeed resemble fruits fit to be eaten in colour, but on being plucked with the hands, are dissolved into smoke and ashes.' In this account, after a due allowance for the marvellous in all popular reports, I find nothing which does not apply almost literally to the fruit of the 'ösher, as we saw it. It must be plucked and handled with great care, in order to preserve it from bursting. We attempted to carry some of the boughs and fruit with us to Jerusalem, but without success.'

May 11th. We rose with the dawn . . . and . . . as we looked down from Engedi upon the sea, the sun rose in glory, diffusing a hue of gold upon the waters, now agitated by a strong ripple from the influence of an eastern breeze. We could perceive the dense evaporation rising and filling the whole chasm of the lake, and spreading itself as a thin haze above the tops of the mountains. We were also not less surprised than delighted, to hear, in the midst of the solitude and grandeur of these desolations, the morning song of innumerable birds. The trees, and rocks, and air around were full of the carols of the lark, the cheerful whistle of the quail, the call of the partridge, and the warbling of many other feathered choristers; while

birds of prey were soaring and screaming in front of the cliffs above.

"While the rest were busy in packing the tent and luggage, and loading the animals, I set off on foot, and ascended the pass alone. Three quarters of an hour brought me to the top of the cliff, whence we had yesterday enjoyed our first view of the sea. Here I sat down upon the brink of the precipice, and looked abroad again upon the sea and its wild craggy shores, to fix more deeply the impressions of the preceding day. The ripple on the sea created a gentle surge upon the shore below, the sound of which, as it rose upon the ear, was exceedingly grateful in this vast solitude. Lovely the scene is not, yet magnificently wild, and in the highest degree stern and impressive. Shattered mountains and the deep chasm of the rent earth are here tokens of the wrath of God, and of his vengeance upon the guilty inhabitants of the plain; when, 'turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah into ashes, he condemned them with an overthrow, making them an ensample unto them that after should live ungodly.'

...

"Usdum. The Salt Mountain.-Usdum is a narrow ridge, called by the Arab guides Khashm Usdum, the former word signifying 'cartilage of the nose.' . . . The whole body of the mountain is a solid mass of rock-salt. The ridge is in general very uneven and rugged, varying from one hundred to one hundred and fifty feet in height. It is, indeed, covered with layers of chalky limestone or marl, so as to present chiefly the appearance of common earth or rock; yet the mass of salt very often breaks out, and appears on the sides in precipices forty or fifty feet high and several hundred feet in length, pure crystallized fossil salt. We could at first hardly believe our eyes; until we had several times approached the precipices, and broken off pieces to satisfy ourselves, both by the touch and taste. The salt, where thus exposed, is every where more or less furrowed by the rains. As we advanced, large lumps

and masses, broken off from above, lay like rocks along the shore... the very stones beneath our feet were pure salt. This continued to be the character of the mountain, more or less distinctly marked, throughout its whole length, a distance of two and a half hours, or five geographical miles . . . The lumps of salt are not transparent, but present a dark appearance, precisely similar to that of the large quantities of mineral salt... the produce of the salt mines along the lower Danube. The existence here of this immense mass of fossil salt .. accounts sufficiently for the excessive saltness of the Dead Sea...

"The position of this mountain, at the south end of the sea, enables us also to ascertain the place of the 'Valley of Salt,' mentioned in Scripture; where the Hebrews under David, and again under Amaziah, gained decisive victories over Edom. This valley could well have been no other than the Ghôr, south of the Dead Sea, adjacent to the mountain of salt; it separates, indeed, the ancient territories of Judah and Edom.1

"Somewhere in the neighbourhood lay also probably the City of Salt,' enumerated along with Engedi as in the desert of Judah." -ROBINSON's Researches, vol. ii.

BELA, OR ZOAR.

SCRIPTURE NOTICES.

BELA, which is Zoar."-Genesis xiv. 2.

"Behold now, this city is near to flee unto, and it is a little one. Oh let me escape thither, (is it not a little

1 2 Samuel viii. 13; 1 Chronicles xviii. 12; 2 Kings xiv. 7. The first two passages clearly refer to the same event; but that in Samuel reads "Syrians," while that in Chronicles reads "Edomites." The latter reading is doubtless the correct one; while the former is easily accounted for by the similarity of the Hebrew letters 7 and 1.

2 Joshua xv. 61, 62,