So the allusions to "the dust of the earth" will car- ry a fulness of meaning to persons living in a land where, during a large portion of the year, the whole surface is reduced to dust by the influence of heated winds. God's power in creating man out of such in- coherent matter, and man's humble bodily origin and end in this life, are forcibly represented by the frequent employment of this illustration, so familiar to the in- haliitMut of the East.
In like manner, the references to the inundation of the Nile (Amos ix, 5 ; Job xxviii, 11), to earthquakes (Isa. ii. 19; Job ix, 6; xxxiv, 20), to mines, metals, ! precious stones, flints, and other mineral substances, I are all found to be in accordance with the actual phys- ical phenomena.
The references to clai/ in the Scriptures are frequent, and accord with its uses and localities at the present da}'. See Clay.
VI. Geology of Bible Lands. — (Condensed from Pat- tison, ut svp. p. 111-llG.) The geology of the coun- tries mentioned in holy Scripture is as yet but imper- fectly known to us, but quite suflScient has been ascer- I tained to test the accuracy of the incidental allusions i made by the writers of the Bible. I 1. The framework of Syria is composed of two i mountainous ranges, running in a parallel strike with I the coast of the Mediterranean, much broken b}' trans- ^ verse clefts, extended by irregular spurs on either j side, with detached minor masses, having the same north and south bearing. Between the two ridges ' runs the valley of the Jordan, occupying a deep de- pression, terminating in the Dead Sea.
The body of the country is a mass of Jurassic (oolitic) rocks, overlaid unconforniably by a spread of cretaceous deposits (chalk and green sandstones), both much disturbed by outbursts of trappean matter (green- stone and basalt), and scooped into valleys along nu- merous lines of ancient fracture. The oolite was eroded before the deposition of the chalk, and the latter has been washed and worn away prior to the deposition of the third system, namely, the eocene tertiar}', which is found in patches, and abounds along the lands of medium height on the shores of the Great Sea. There are a few reconsolidated rocks and gravels of a more recent period, but the bulk of the whole region is a highly contorted, inclined, and broken mass of second- ary, metamorphic, and igneous rocks.
The Libanus is an axis of Jurassic rock, with some thin beds of oolite coal, surmounted by chalk, and flanked towards the coast by the great tertiary num- mulitic limestone so universal along this parallel of the earth. The challc contains fossils similar to that of the south of France. The tertiaries are often found isolated after the fashion prevalent in other countries. In some places conglomerates of the later Jurassic age occur, containing pebbles and fossils of the lower oolites.
Towards the sources of the Jordan we find igneous rocks prevailing, with their usual concomitants of me- tallic minerals, highly-colored landscapes, abundant springs, and verdant pastures. Hemion (the highest
GEOLOGY
808
GEOLOGY
Ueolugicul .Map of Talestiue
mountain in Palestine) is formed of limestone, with bursts of trap. In this range occur the strata contain- in'j; abundant remains of iish and vegetable impres- sions.
Galilee exposes similar conditions : an imderlying oolite rock, an overlying cretaceous, -with (juartz, much broken up bj' trap.
The ujipcr portion of the Jordan valley, as far south as the lower shores of the Sea of Tiberias, are much diversilicd by greenstone, lavas, pumice, and other kinds of igneons rock.
On the east rise the granitic and trappcan moun- tains of ;Moai), inclosing a limestone country. In the valley itself are tcrtiar}' and post-tertiary accumula- tions, while on the west the tertiary sandstone occu- pies in force the plateaus of the subjacent limestone. Mount Tabor is a mass of chalk rock, and "the cliffs around the Sea of Galilee are much intersected by ba- salts and lavas.
The Jordan valley itself shows two terraces far
above its present waters,' oth due to its former con- dition, first as an arm of the Red Sea, and then as .1 lake.
The Mount of Olives and the other eminences around Jerusalem are composed of chalk with flints; the older lime- stones appear in the bot- tom of the deep valle3'^s. This is the substratum of the Holy ("ity and its vi- cinit}'. 15ethlehem is sur- rounded by coarse j'ellow cretaceous limestone.
The Dead Sea is bound- ed on the west principally ly tall cliffs of stratified limestone,with much rub- ble of an ancient date : to- wards the south, tertiary marls and clays prevail, the whole aboundingwith traces of volcanic agen- cies. The upper portion of the long mound at the south of the lake is gyp- sum, overlying rock salt, which is furi'owed into knolls and pillars. The south-eastern shore is col- ored by the bright red of the sandstone ; on the east are heavy limestones and chalk, altered by the igneous masses forming the mountains of IMoab. The north-east angle is formed of basaltic rocks, with xolcanic slag and pumice.
The whole Jordan val- ley was undoubtedly a vale in tertiarj' periods ; but the Dead Sea appears to have received the re- markable features which now characterize it sub- sequently to the deposi- tion of the tertiary beds. 2. E.xtending our sur- vey eastward from Pales- tine, we may embrace a wide area, extending from Ararat to the head of the Persian Gulf, the general features of wliich are now well known. JIany of the groups of secondary sedi- mentary strata familiar to us in Western Europe also occur here, upheaved, together with their overlying tertiary deposits, by igneous rocks, in like manner.