666 On Mount Chimaera in Lycia a flame burned perpetually which neither earth nor water could extinguish. See Pliny, _Nat. Hist._ ii. 236, v. 100; Servius on Virgil, _Aen._ vi. 288; Seneca, _Epist._ x. 3. 3; Diodorus, quoted by Photius, _Bibliotheca_, p. 212 B, 10 _sqq._, ed. Im. Bekker (Berlin, 1824). This perpetual flame was rediscovered by Captain Beaufort near Porto Genovese on the coast of Lycia. It issues from the side of a hill of crumbly serpentine rock, giving out an intense heat, but no smoke. “Trees, brushwood, and weeds grow close round this little crater, a small stream trickles down the hill hard bye, and the ground does not appear to feel the effect of its heat at more than a few feet distance.” The fire is not accompanied by earthquakes or noises; it ejects no stones and emits no noxious vapours. There is nothing but a brilliant and perpetual flame, at which the shepherds often cook their food. See Fr. Beaufort, _Karmania_ (London, 1817), p. 46; compare T. A. B. Spratt and E. Forbes, _Travels in Lycia_ (London, 1847), ii. 181 _sq._ 667 In the foregoing discussion I have confined myself, so far as concerns Asia, to the volcanic regions of Cappadocia, Lydia, and Caria. But Syria and Palestine, the home of Adonis and Melcarth, “abound in volcanic appearances, and very extensive areas have been shaken, at different periods, with great destruction of cities and loss of lives. Continual mention is made in history of the ravages committed by earthquakes in Sidon, Tyre, Berytus, Laodicea, and Antioch, and in the island of Cyprus. The country around the Dead Sea exhibits in some spots layers of sulphur and bitumen, forming a superficial deposit, supposed by Mr. Tristram to be of volcanic origin” (Sir Ch. Lyell, _Principles of Geology_,12 i. 592 _sq._). As to the earthquakes of Syria and Phoenicia see Strabo, i. 3. 16, p. 58; Lucretius, vi. 585; Josephus, _Antiquit. Jud._ xv. 5. 2; _id._, _Bell. Jud._ i. 19. 3; W. M. Thomson, _The Land and the Book, Central Palestine and Phoenicia_, pp. 568-574; Ed. Robinson, _Biblical Researches in Palestine_,3 ii. 422-424; S. R. Driver, on Amos iv. 11 (Cambridge _Bible for Schools and Colleges_). It is said that in the reign of the Emperor Justin the city of Antioch was totally destroyed by a dreadful earthquake, in which three hundred thousand people perished (Procopius, _De Bello Persico_, ii. 14). The destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah (Genesis xix. 24-28) has been plausibly explained as the effect of an earthquake liberating large quantities of petroleum and inflammable gases. See H. B. Tristram, _The Land of Israel_, Fourth Edition (London, 1882), pp. 350-354; S. R. Driver, _The Book of Genesis_4 (London, 1905), pp. 202 _sq._