that convulsion of nature,
with or without miracle, which formed the depression of the great valley;
yet it is remarkable that the deepest part of the lake is at the spot
which tradition has always pointed out for the site of those cities, and
nigh to the salt mountain, which still bears the name of Sodom.

To this spot the slopes both ways tend, and there they meet. Calculating
the whole line of depression, as Petermann does, at 190 miles, the slope
from the north, _i.e._, from the "Bridge of the daughters of Jacob," near
Safed, is comparatively gradual for 140 miles; and that from the south,
_i.e._, from the elevation in the southern 'Arabah, where the level meets
again from the north, is more precipitous for 50 miles. Action and
reaction being equal in natural effects, the rapid declivity in the
shorter distance is equal to the more gradual declivity in the longer
measure.

But that centre of _seismal action_ is taken for the site of Sodom--hence
the site of the destruction of Sodom and the starting point of earthquake
are the same. The record of the destruction is, therefore, the record of
some dreadful convulsion capable of stopping the Jordan, so as to form a
lake there; and the only _adequate_ cause in nature assigned by
geologists for such a depression, is earthquake accompanied by volcanic
action.

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