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 destroyed the Cities of the Plain may have, to a great extent, exhausted the supply of petroleum.

"There is no reason to think" (adds Dr Dawson) "that the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah was connected with any important change in the limits of the Dead Sea, though it is highly probable that some subsidence of the valley took place, and may have slightly affected its levels relatively to the Jordan and the sea; but it would appear from Deut. xxix. 23, that the eruption was followed by a permanent deterioration of the district by the saline mud with which it was covered."

In the Theological Monthly for May 1890, Rev. James Neil declares that no bitumen pits are to be found anywhere in the neighbourhood of the Jordan. The pits spoken of by Dr Selah Merrill were connected with aqueducts, and used for purposes of irrigation. But the asphalt thrown up from the bottom of the Dead Sea may have been employed to render such pits watertight, and to that extent they would be slime pits. He shows that such pits do exist in the Jordan Valley, extending across it in long lines just north of the supposed site of some of the Cities of the Plain; and it is a very curious fact that the Bedawin, who are unacquainted with their nature and purpose, have a legend connecting them with a great battle.

[Authorities and Sources:—Smith's "Dict. of the Bible." "Tent-work in Palestine." Major Conder, R.E. "The Land of Moab." Rev. Canon Tristram, F.R.S. "East of Jordan." Dr Selah Merrill. "Egypt and Syria." Sir J. W. Dawson.]

In connection with the destruction of Sodom, the Bible mentions the fate which overtook Lot's wife, who "became a pillar of salt." In the Book of Wisdom also we read of