Show THE SEA OF SODOM formation of another body of water like the dead sea homo nistor lc facts about the putrefying Putrefy ing batera although crowing fouler every year they are not devold of life will there be another sea of sodom lynch of the united states navy has established the fact previously not known with consummate accuracy that the depression of the dead sea also known as the sea of lot and in the scriptures as the salt sea is over thirteen hundred feet below the level of the mediterranean while that of lake genezaret Gene is eight hundred feet lower than the ocean the measurements were made twenty years ago a long period in a semi volcanic region lake genezaret Gene is connected alie dead sea by the jordan flowing through it from north to south and engineers and scientists are satisfied that the bed of the jordan is gradually sinking sly observations of the shores of lake gen emaret and those of the inhabitants of the neighboring towns and villages indicate that the lake is continuously falling toward the bottom while the water is becoming denser from year to year the salt strata in its neighborhood are growing constantly it seems and sulphur springs are becoming frequent on the plains surrounding it in the north and east of the lake the palm trees some of them alive more of them dead and barren rise above the water at a distance of from twenty to forty feet from shore that they should have taken root in the water is impossible and the supposition is that originally they stood on islands submerged with the sinking of the lakes bottom the catastrophe which resulted in the destruction of the cities of sodom and gomorrah and in the formation of the dead sea is computed to have occurred about nineteen hundred years before christ the dead sea has puzzled scientists ever since and many of its remarkable features have now been explained its depression below the level of the mediterranean is the deepest known on earth the bottom of lake genezaret Gene is on a much lingher level at present but if it continues to sink as it has done in the last twenty years a repetition of the events of tover thousand years ago is not improbable As the world has not been treated to a spectacle of terrestrial evolutions on a grand scale within hundreds of years the creation of a second dead sea within the compass of ordinary travel would surely attract the attention of all civilized nations and at the same time help to solve many problems of a scientific nature josephus who was bom in 37 B C reports that the water of genezaret Gene was clear as crystal sweet and wholesome I 1 tried to drink of it but found it putrid and nauseating it left a salty taste in the mouth I 1 asked the fishermen plying their trade on the lake as in biblical days whether the water was always unfit for drinking purposes and received answer eliat it grew more and more foul every year i this seems to indicate that the sur discs as to the change of conditions in the lake are correct the water of the dead sea as is well known is entirely unfit for use by man the stench arts ing from it creates a pestilential atmosphere for many miles around I 1 have never been able to approach the lake in summer but the natives have informed me that about thi of he year the water even a foot below the surface acquires a temperature of ninety degrees it has been observed that past midnight the temperature of the water on the surface measured in the neighborhood of one hundred degrees there is however one false impression in the public mind to be corrected the dead sea is not dead as to animal life hawks partridges frogs and pigeons are numerous upon its shores and all sorts of crawling insects abound there the sluggish waters too arc covered ducks in fact the fauna is the same as that inhabiting ha the shores of lake genezaret Gene with this difference however all specimens of the animal world about the dead sea are slate colored while those enlivening the and surface of lake genezaret Gene wear their ordinary plumage and scaly dress respectively the lake Gene arct also called the sea of biberias Tib erias or galilee is situated sixty five miles north of the dead sea its extreme is fifteen miles its greatest width six and three fourths miles the water is very deep at the shores in some spots its depth measures one hundred and sixty feet in others seven hundred and fifty and more in the northeast and northwest the shores are flat and swampy the mountains of hafed approach the lake in the north in the west we have the hills of el bamma and the volcanic plateau of commences in the east it is distinguished for many dead craters its greatest height is called hermon and it wears an eternal snow cap palms that bring forth no fruiting papyrus plants and oleander flourish in the neighborhood of the shore the stones at the edge of the water are literally covered with turtles some of which grow over a foot and a half long ducks are plentiful in some parts in others the pelican holds forth in large numbers philadelphia times |