While on the subject of possible depression of the Jordan bed, I may
mention an indication which I have often pointed out to others, namely,
the remarkable ledge traceable along the face of the Moab mountains at a
considerable height, as seen from the neighbourhood of Jerusalem. It is
distinctly marked, and forms a curious record of some natural change
having occurred on a large scale.
Dr Wilson, in his "Lands of the Bible," contends that an earthquake
capable of depressing a straight line of the length of the Ghor and
'Arabah, must have convulsed all the lands of Canaan, Moab, Ammon, Edom,
and the Desert, with their inhabitants; but that no such convulsion took
place, for Zoar on the east, and Hebron on the west, are known to have
remained.
Does it, however, necessarily follow that seismal devastation spreads in
_every_ direction? On the contrary, earthquakes act in oscillations from
east to west, returning from west to east; or from north to south,
returning from south to north: but not in the manner of a flood of water
spreading in every direction at once. If so, a mighty earthquake,
extending along the whole Ghor and 'Arabah, would be exactly such a cause
as might spare a city on each side of its progress.
The whole subject still admits of much careful investigation on sundry
points; but, meanwhile, until geologists have given us more data from
which to form conclusions, I must take my stand upon the distinct record
of Genesis; that what was the Salt Sea when Moses wrote, had been the
Vale or Plain (Emek) of Siddim, containing cities with kings, who fought
and were subdued by Chedarlaomer upon that plain in the time of Abraham;
and that those cities were the same as those that were penally destroyed
soon after.
XII. ACROSS THE LEBANON.
I have traversed the Lebanon eastwards and southwards of Bayroot several
times; once in 1849; again in 1853; and also in 1855: but it seems
advisable to narrate the incidents separately, and although on two
occasions I passed over nearly the same ground, it will be curious to
compare or contrast those journeys, inasmuch as the circumstances were
dissimilar.
PART I.--1849.
The course of the first journey was as follows:--From Sidon on the
sea-coast we gradually climbed the Lebanon range eastward; then
descending by tortuous roads, and turning somewhat to the south, we
crossed to where Hhasbeya lies at the foot of Anti-Lebanon; after which
we followed the general direction of the streams southwards, and uniting
above the waters of Merom form the Jordan. Holding on at the western
side of the plain we arrived at Safed in Galilee.
_Oct._ 25_th_.--We left Saida for Joon, which had been for many years the
residence of Lady Hester Stanhope, and the vice-consul furnished us with
a kawwas who had been a servant of her ladyship.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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