DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.11789#0110
100
A THUNDER-STORM.
the Dead Sea. Our road lay across a level plain,
partially covered with a variety of shrubs, among
which a peculiar species of thorn was most con-
spicuous. Just as it was becoming light enough
for us to trace distinctly the dark outlines of the
mountains of Moab—-whose utter barrenness and
desolation seem still to bear witness of the wrath
of Heaven, from the time when the Lord rained
upon Sodom and Gomorrah "brimstone and fire,"
and the "smoke of the country went up as the
smoke of a furnace;"—a black cloud, which had been
gathering on the neighboring hills, suddenly over-
spread the sky and discharged several dazzling
streams of lightning upon the mountains and the
sea. The deep booming sound of the thunder as its
reverberations swept across the vast and desolate
valley, combined with the fearful associations con-
nected with this region, added an indescribable
charm to the magnificence and sublimity of the
scene. There was soon after a slight shower, the
only rain that we saw while in Palestine.
After a ride of rather more than an hour from
the site of our previous encampment, we arrived at
the banks of the Jordan. At this place the stream
is not more than fifteen or twenty yards wide,
but it is deep, and flows with a great deal of force.
A THUNDER-STORM.
the Dead Sea. Our road lay across a level plain,
partially covered with a variety of shrubs, among
which a peculiar species of thorn was most con-
spicuous. Just as it was becoming light enough
for us to trace distinctly the dark outlines of the
mountains of Moab—-whose utter barrenness and
desolation seem still to bear witness of the wrath
of Heaven, from the time when the Lord rained
upon Sodom and Gomorrah "brimstone and fire,"
and the "smoke of the country went up as the
smoke of a furnace;"—a black cloud, which had been
gathering on the neighboring hills, suddenly over-
spread the sky and discharged several dazzling
streams of lightning upon the mountains and the
sea. The deep booming sound of the thunder as its
reverberations swept across the vast and desolate
valley, combined with the fearful associations con-
nected with this region, added an indescribable
charm to the magnificence and sublimity of the
scene. There was soon after a slight shower, the
only rain that we saw while in Palestine.
After a ride of rather more than an hour from
the site of our previous encampment, we arrived at
the banks of the Jordan. At this place the stream
is not more than fifteen or twenty yards wide,
but it is deep, and flows with a great deal of force.