Just a word about the origin of the Dead Sea. It is currently believed, and I think with good reason, that at one time there was an unbroken body of water, not very deep, extending from the southern end of the Dead Sea, up through what is now known as the Ghor or valley of the Jordan, to the base of Mount Hermon, a distance of some two hundred miles. The volcanic fires, which were then raging, and the effects of which are still to be seen, consumed the material underlying the southern end of what was then the vast sea. All at once, during the fierce rumblings of an earthquake, and the sudden outburst of a volcano, there was a tremendous cleaving and lowering of the crust of the earth. Thus was formed, it is supposed, the great rock-hewn basin, or deep depression, which we now call the Dead Sea, and whose bottom is 4,000 feet lower than the surface of the Mediterranean. This great natural cavity, forty-six miles long, and thirteen miles wide, was so very deep, and had such an enormous capacity, that it drank up or drained off most of the water that formerly extended to the foot of Hermon. So instead of one vast sea, two hundred miles in length, as it then was, we now have Lake Huleh, the Sea of Galilee and the Dead Sea, lying in a straight line, directly north and south, the three joined to each other by the river Jordan. There are many evidences to show that the Jordan valley was once covered with water—that it was once the bed of a great sea. Yes, the Dead Sea was evidently caused by some fearful convulsion of nature. It is, indeed, a bitter Sea of Death. It is a perpetual emblem of God’s avenging wrath! No living thing inhabits these waters. Not a tree, not a shrub, not even a blade of grass, grows on, or near, the beach. Here and there crystal rivulets attempt to bring life down to the water’s edge, but a few hundred yards from the sea Death meets Vegetation and says: “Hitherto shalt thou come, and no farther.” The thing that grows nearest to the water’s edge is what is known as the Sodom apple, or Dead Sea apple. The bush is about as high as my head, the apples grow in clusters. When ripe, they are red, and about the size of an apricot or a peach. The apple has nothing in it but seed and air. It pops when crushed. Hence the old saying that it turns to ashes on the lips. Again I say this sea is a fit emblem of Death. Its water is bitter, and destitute of life. It is locked in by fire-scorched and storm-beaten rocks. Above it are a fierce sun and a brazen sky. Silence reigns supreme. As the traveler walks around the sea, his shadow is the only moving thing he sees. If he chances to be attracted by the song of a bird, or by a crow flying over the water, it is only that the contrast may make death and silence all the more impressive. Here is a sea whose hollow fruit is ashes, whose miasmatic breath is poison, whose moonlit waves are fire, and whose significant name is Death! CHAPTER XXXVI. TWO RUSSIAN PILGRIMS, OR A PICTURE OF LIFE.