Page:Buried cities and Bible countries (1891).djvu/120

 in the oil district of Petrolia, in Canada, I read that a borehole struck a reservoir of gas, which rushed upward with explosive force, carrying before it a large quantity of petroleum. The gas almost immediately took fire, and formed a tall column of flame, while the burning petroleum spread over the ground and ignited tanks of the substance in the vicinity. In this way a space of about fifteen acres was enveloped in fire, a village was burned, and several persons lost their lives. The air flowing toward the eruption caused a whirlwind, which carried the dense smoke high into the air, and threw down burning bitumen all round.

"Now, if we suppose that at the time referred to, accumulations of inflammable gas and petroleum existed below the Plain of Siddim, the escape of these through the opening of a fissure along the old line of fault might produce the effects described—namely, a pillar of smoke rising up to heaven, burning bitumen and sulphur raining on the doomed cities, and fire spreading over the ground. The attendant phenomenon of the evolution of saline waters, implied in the destruction of Lot's wife, would be a natural accompaniment, as water is always discharged in such eruptions; and in this case it would be a brine thick with mud, and fitted to encrust and cover any object reached by it."

An important note, with reference to the destruction of the Cities of the Plain, appears in the statement in Gen. xiv., that the Vale of Siddim had bitumen pits or wells, and that these were so abundant or important as to furnish a place of retreat to, or to impede the flight of, the defeated kings of Sodom and Gomorrah. These bitumen pits have disappeared, unless their remains are represented by the singular pits described by Dr Merrill as occurring near Wady Nimrim. Their existence in the times of Abraham would bespeak a much greater abundance of bituminous matter than that now remaining; and it is possible that the eruption which