the plummet occasionally brought up crystals of salt-occasionally blue and yellow mud. Returning to the line sounded from Ain Gidy to Mojeb, or the Arnon, and advancing southward towards the peninsula, the soundings gave less and less water, so that from one hundred and eightyeight fathoms, in a distance of five miles, they found one hundred and twenty; and two miles farther, which brought them up with the northern end of the peninsula, they found fifty fathoms. Here, evidently, is the line that divides the two "submerged plains." Here the plummet came up out of the northern and deeper plain, and began to sound the southern or shallower one. From this point the depth decreases rapidly southward. Between the western shore and the peninsula it decreases, in a distance of six miles, from fifty to three fathoms; and from the southern point of the peninsula to the southern extremity of the sea, the depth nowhere (April 25th) exceeded two and a half fathoms; and at the extreme south, the water covering a large space was from one to one and a half feet deep, being nothing more than the seething mixture of slime, bitumen, marl, and bitter water, mentioned above. Beyond the water-line southward, they found the broad level shore to be composed of salt, marl, bitumen, and slime, into which they sank up to their knees, and which scorched them like "hot ashes." It is generally thought by the learned and scientific that the Cities of the Plain occupied the southern portion of the sea; and we know that they occupied a valley watered and fertilized by the sweet floods of the Jordan. It would seem probable, therefore, that this river then flowed southward, through the valley of the Arabah, to the Red Sea. The catastrophe which overwhelmed these cities was evidently accompanied by violent volcanic action and conflagration, which have left their impress on every part of this gloomy and guilty region, as any geologist will easily see. The probability therefore is, that the whole area now occupied by the sea was sunk down, as we now find it, into a deep and hot chasm, into which the waters of the Jordan flow from the north, and the rain-floods of the Arabah and the adjacent countries flow from the south, through Wady el Jeib. Thus the Arabah has become arid for the want of the fertilizing waters of the Jordan, and the land of Job a desert.* Having finished the exploration of the Dead Sea, Commander Lynch prepared, on the 30th of April, to visit Kerak, the “Kir Moab" (or capital of Moab) of Scripture. It is situated high up in the mountains, some ten miles distant from the south-east coast * The waters of the sea pass off by rapid evaporation, caused by the intense heat of its peculiar climate. of the sea. He had made arrangements for this visit by sending 'Akil across the Jordan, and down the country on the east side, to inform the Kerak people of his coming. 'Akil had to fight his way through one of the tribes, the Adwans; yet he with his escort, some twelve of them wounded, made his way to Kerak, and, true to his engagements, sent a messenger to meet the boats at the mouth of the Wady Beni Hamed, which enters the sea at the head of the bay which lies between the peninsula and the eastern mountains. Their voyage from Ain Gidy across to this bay was one of great suffering, from the intense heat of the sun, the sulphurous atmosphere, which cracked and parched their skin, and from the irresistible stupor which forced all to sleep, except the commanders of the boats, who steered them. Although the length of the sail was only eleven miles, yet, the narrative says, "The fierce angel of disease seemed hovering over them, (the men,) and I read the forerunner of his presence in their flushed and feverish sleep. Some, with their bodies bent and arms dangling over the abandoned oars, their hands excoriated with the acrid water, slept profoundly; others, with heads thrown back, and lips cracked and sore, with a scarlet flush on either cheek, seemed overpowered by heat and weariness even in sleep; while some, upon whose faces shone the reflected light from the water, looked ghastly, and dozed with a nervous twitching of the limbs, and now and then starting from their sleep, drank deeply from a beaker and sank back again to lethargy.”—P. 388. It was some distance from their landing-place to the mountains, and the country around, particularly to the south, was pretty well watered, and covered with groves of cane and tamarisks, and along the streams were luxuriant oleanders from fifteen to eighteen feet high, in full bloom. There also was the village of Mezra-ah, whose people cultivated millet, tobacco, and indigo. They were a savage race, more dark, hair more wiry, and their features and complexion more of the African type than the Arabs of the Ghor generally. At the appointed day, true to his engagement, 'Akil had sent a trusty messenger to meet the boats. With him came the son of Abd Allah, the Christian sheikh of Kerak, who, hearing that Christians were on the Dead Sea, and about to visit their town, came to welcome them. Yet it was thought best to send to the Moslem sheikh for horses and protection to go to the town. In due time these arrived under the charge of Mohammed, the young prince; and the party prepared to ascend the mountains to Kerak, some twelve miles distant in a straight line. As they had seen enough already to know that their safety depended upon their strength and arms, they took the precaution to prepare themselves thoroughly. The ascent was toilsome, and sometimes dangerous; and when they reached the town they found it strongly placed, and defended by a wall, within which was a very strong fortress.* The houses are described as "stone huts, built without mortar, with flat roofs, surrounded by low walls." They are all one story, and about eight feet high; without windows or chimneys, and blackened inside by smoke. The population is thus described : "Kerak contains a population of about three hundred families, three-fourths Christian. By paying an annual tribute, and submitting to occasional exactions, the latter live amicably with the powerful tribe of Kerakiyeh, whose encampment is a short distance without the walls. The latter are so averse to houses, that some, then on a visit to the town, had pitched their tents in the yards of vacant dwellings. "The Muslim inhabitants are wild-looking savages, but the Christians have a milder expression. The males mostly wear sheepskin coats; the women, dark-coloured gowns; the Christian females did not conceal their faces, which were tattooed like the South-Sea islanders. The priest, in his black turban and subdued countenance, acted as our cicerone. He took us to his little church, a low, dark, vaulted room, containing a picture of St. George fighting the Dragon, two half columns of red granite from the ruins of the castle, and a well of cool water in the centre."-P. 357. "In the course of a long conversation to-night, Abd' Allah gave us a history of the condition and prospects of the Christians of Kerak. He said that there were from nine hundred to a thousand Christians here, comprising three-fourths of the population. They could muster a little over two hundred fighting men; but are kept in subjection by the Muslim Arabs, living mostly in tents without the town. He stated that they are, in every manner, imposed upon. If a Muslim comes to the town, instead of going to the house of another Muslim, he quarters himself upon a Christian, and appropriates the best of everything: that Christian families have been two days without food-all that they had being consumed by their self-invited guests. If a Muslim sheikh buys a horse for so many sheep, he makes the Christians contribute until the number be made up. Their property, he said, is seized at will, without there being any one to whom to appeal; and remonstrance, on their part, only makes it worse. Already a great many have been driven away; poverty alone keeping the remainder. They have commenced building a church, in the hope of keeping all together, and as a safe place of refuge for their wives and children, in times of trouble; but the locusts and the sirocco have for the last seven years blasted the fields, and nearly all spared by them has been swept by the Muslims. They gave me the following appeal to the Christians in our more happy land, which I promised to make known. The following is a literal translation : 66 "By God's favour! "May it, God willing! reach America, and be presented to our Christian brothers, whose happiness may the Almighty God preserve! Amen! "8642. BEDUAH. "We are, in Kerak, a few very poor Christians, and are building a church. "We beg your excellency to help us in this undertaking, for we are very weak. "The land has been unproductive, and visited by the locusts, for the last seven years. * These were all the works of the Crusaders. 1849.] 1 Dr. Dixon on America. 653 “The church is delayed in not being accomplished, for want of funds, for we are a few Christians, surrounded by Muslims. "This being all that is necessary to write to you, Christian brothers of America, we need say no more. "The trustees in your bounty, “‘ABD' ALLAH EN NAHAS, Sheikh, “YAKOB EN Nahas, Sheikh's brother.-Page 563. "Kerak, Jâmad Awâh, 1264."" Can nothing be done for these Christians? The American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions could receive and transmit contributions to assist these poor oppressed disciples of Jesus. Will not the American Board make such a proposition? We are satisfied it would be responded to. Captain Lynch found Muhamed, the Muslim Sheikh of Kerak, a surly, savage fellow, determined, by force if necessary, to exact from the Americans a large present, which they determined not to give. So they managed to take the sheikh prisoner, and carry him down to the boats; and when they pushed off they left him standing on the shore, very submissive, indeed, amid his astonished people, and willing to receive humbly the smallest bucksheesh. ART. VIII.-DR. DIXON ON AMERICA. Personal Narrative of a Tour through a Part of the United States and Canada; with Notices of the History and Institutions of Methodism in America By JAMES DIXON, D. D. 12mo., pp. 431. New-York: Lane & Scott. 1849. In our July number we briefly characterized Dr. Dixon's new work on America, founding our remarks on the English copy. The American edition has now appeared from the press of the Conference. It is very neatly printed, and bound in 12mo., and is accompanied by a good mezzotint likeness of the * author. The first part of the work, containing the "Personal Narrative,” is the only portion of the book in which Dr. Dixon can be compared with other English travellers who have written upon this country, and he shows to eminent advantage in the comparison. No one of them, except Sir Thomas Lyell, approaches him in fairness of mind, in aptness of apprehension, in correctness of observation, or even in ability to see and describe what he sees. Over most of them he has this great advantage—that the very nature of his mission gave him opportunities of seeing American society in many phases which ordinary travellers never get a glimpse of; opportunities to note something more, and more important, than the size of the forks or the colour of the fingerglasses at table, or the like petty minutiae, which go to fill up the pages of tourists whose range of observation is confined to the dining-rooms of taverns or the saloons of steamboats. He sees in the American people an earnest, active, religious race, friends of education, of temperance, and of public virtue; enjoying a degree of social prosperity such as the world never saw, and deserving to enjoy it, because they acknowledge God as its great giver. He sees that the occasional irregularities, follies, and even crimes, of which so much is made by the enemies of republican institutions on the other side of the water, are committed, in most cases, by emigrants from that very side of the water, and not by genuine, home-born Americans. He does not look for ancient cathedrals in the backwoods, nor even for palaces and smoothcropped lawns on the Alleghany Mountains. He is content to behold the signs of freedom, growth, and progress everywhere; and does not repine because the American people, in the fresh youth of this growth and progress, are selfrelying and independent, even in their individual life. Nay, the outward signs of this "living power" delight him :— "There is an air of perfect independence and freedom, consciousness of strength and power, repose in the midst of activity, calmness and dignity with profound emotions. An American, more than any character it was ever my happiness to study, looks like a man who is sensible that he carries his own destinies about him; that he is complete in himself; that he is a self-acting, self-moving intelligence; that he has to shape his own course, and become the architect of his own fortune. He does not seem to be looking without to catch the chances of some stray events by which to fashion his life: his thoughts are steadily fixed upon strengthening his own resources, and he is always laying in a stock for the voyage he is upon. The effect of this is to produce (I hardly know what to call it) a rotundity, a fulness, a completeness of manhood, not seen in other societies; and to those who do not comprehend him, or who have only been accustomed to the fawning flatteries-and as false as they are fawning-of other nations, all this is extremely offensive. * * * * * * * * * * "Instead of moving and acting like the members of the body at the bidding of some other head or will than his own; instead of being dragged along, like the helpless travellers of a railroad train, by forces independent of himself, the American chooses to consult his own counsels, to examine his own course, and to move the machine intrusted to him by his Creator by his own free volitions. All this may either be good or bad. In case the forces which are thus put in motion are fitted to move aright, it is easy to see that the results must be vastly important. Man, free, unfettered, acting on his own convictions, supposing them to be wise and good, must possess a power which men in chains, or working in gangs like slaves in a plantation, cannot enjoy. This individualism is, in point of fact, the leading feature of American character. The true son of the soil never parts with it. The combinations, confederations, unions, and committees into which politics or commercial enterprises drive him, never despoil him of his identity."-Pp. 182–184. But we must let him tell what he did see on the Alleghanies: "Our long train of 'stages,' with their brilliant lamps, reflected by the foliage, presented a singular appearance, and not devoid of interest and beauty. It became very cold as we ascended the mountain, and we were glad to halt for supper. This was served, considering the character of the place, in very good style; and, no doubt, we did it justice. After a good warming, we again renewed our journey. The road is designated 'national,' being prepared at the public expense; but unpleasantly rough. The shaking and jolting, the up-and-down kind of exercise we had to endure, made sleep in my case quite out of the question. Hearing a remarkable noise as we proceeded, I inquired of my companions what it meant; and was informed that it arose from the merry-making of frogs. The sound was not a croak, but a chirp, very much like that of crickets by our fire-sides, only much louder. For many miles the mountain was perfectly vocal with the music of these happy creatures. |