ar inwards, but could see traces of occasional overflowings of
the lake into the interior.

The mountain itself is a wonder: five miles of salt above ground, and a
hundred feet, probably in some places two hundred feet high. The colour
is not bright, but of a dull gray. The best parts of it are very hard to
break, and with difficulty we brought away some pieces for curiosity.

As for Lot's wife,--the pillar of salt, mentioned and portrayed by the
American expedition in 1848, and of which it is said they took a fragment
for a museum at home,--after a good deal of search, we only discovered a
crooked thin spire of rock-salt in one place of the mountain; but it
would not have been very remarkable if many such had been found to exist
in similar circumstances.

It was a place for inducing solemn reflections and intense sensations,
such as one could hardly venture to record at the time of being there, or
endeavour to repeat now after so long an interval. Much may, however, be
imagined by devout readers of the holy Scriptures--not only as contained
in the records of the Book of Genesis, but also as inculcated with
intense emphasis in the Epistle of Jude in a later period. Still, there
is a vividness of impression to be derived only from being actually on
the spot, and surveying the huge extent of water that differs from any
other in the world,--placid and bright on its surface, yet awful in its
rocky boundaries. But where are the cities and their punished
inhabitants, except in the Bible, and the traditions preserved by
Tacitus, the Koran, and by the present inhabitants of the country?

Some morsels of bitumen were found upon the beach; but the principal
season of the year for finding it is in winter, especially at the
commencement of winter, when the lake becomes unusually agitated, and
breaks off masses of it from the bottom, often of very large size--the
peasants of Hebron, with exaggeration, say, "As large as ships;" but I
have seen many camel-loads of it brought up to Jerusalem at a time, for
export to Europe. It is, however, a monopoly of the crown.

We should note that in Gen. xiv. 10, the district was full of bitumen
pits previous to the overthrow of the cities of the plain.

At twenty minutes to three we came to a rude heap of stones called
_Zoghal_ or _Zoghar_. This cannot well be Zoar, among other reasons,
because it lies upon the beach, and is not upon an eminence. It is well
to mention that M. de Saul