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 Saulcy’s extravagant ideas of the Pentapolis of Sodom, etc., had not then been published.
In another quarter of an hour we had reached the extremity of the “Salt Mountain,” with all its distorted, sometimes even perpendicular stratification. By this time we were convinced that the whole of the mountain is not salt, but that a good deal of the upper length of it is a mixture of salt and marl or sand. Between it and the water’s
edge we frequently saw blocks and spires of rock-salt protruding through the flat beach.
There can be no doubt that the Arabic name, Usdum, is identical with Sodom, by a well-known custom of the language to invert the consonant and vowel of the first syllable. But even this is brought back to the original state in the adjective form. Thus I heard our guides speak of the Jebel Sid’mi, meaning the Khash’m or Jebel Usdum, or promontory of Sodom.
The Wadi Netheeleh comes up from the southwest to the shore at this northern end of the mountain, parallel to the Wadi Hhuggereh at the southern end.
We kept along the sea-side, and on rising to a higher level, near five o’clock, halted for the night at the mouth of a valley where some water was to be procured, and near us was a broken tower. This site is named Mobugghek or Umm-Bugghek. As we were scarcely out of the reach of the Ghawârineh Arabs, our people had to go out in armed detachments for collecting firewood.
During the process of pitching the tents, one of our men, named ’Odeh, perceived a stranger at a great distance, and half stripping himself, ran nimbly up a steep sand hill, ready for whatever operation might be necessary. Our European, I might rather say, our civilised eyes, could not have discovered the ill-omened object at that distance, but those of desert Arabs are far more powerful
than ours. I do not know that I shall ever forget the ardent brilliancy of Shaikh Selâmeh’s eyes at all times, as witnessed constantly during our excursion.