Rensselaer Union, Volume 11, Number 16, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 2 January 1879 — Promised Revival of Sodom and Gomorrah [ARTICLE]

Promised Revival of Sodom and Gomorrah

It is reported (bat French capitalists have secured a grunt for a railway line (Vorn Jaffa to the interior of Palestine, which will opeu up th* Jordan valley and the whole region north of the Suez cnnnf. Tn certain contingencies this road might becomo of great military usefulness, but it appears further .Altai (he productive resources of the country are considerable, nnd what is more surprising, that the Dead Sen itself can bo turned to commercial account. Chief of tkeso nt present are tho stores of natural combustibles for which that region is noted.

Hitherto tho main obstacle te the development of steam traffio in the Levant has been the totnl absence of combnstibls material. Not only Egypt, but the shoros of Syria nnd tho Red Sea are completely stripped of wood, and tho coal imported from tho West commands n' price ranging from $lO to $24 a ton. Now the masses of asphalt continually thrown up by the Dead Sea attest tho presence of vast subterranean layers of fossil vegetable matter, and those signs were not long overlooked by the enterprising men attracted to Sue* by the opening of tho canal and the movement of commerce in that direction. Rocently numerous soundings have been made between Jaffa and the Dead Sen, which, so far, have not disclosed any deposits ,of coal proper, but, on the oilier hand, have laid bare inexhaustible beds of lignite. Of itself this store of lignite is likely to prove an inestimable gain to theiindustries aud cqpimnrco of the Levant; but we should add that tho juxtaposition of asphalt in groat quantities furnishes the elements of n mixture of lignite and osphaltum in the form of bricks, which is equal in heating capacity to the richest bituminous coal, while, its cost on the ground is only $2.60 n ton. It is known that similar bricks, inudo tip of coal dust and biiuiniuouedcbris from gns works, arc .after by Freuch railways, since, besides their heating power, they greatly facilitate stowage, owing to their regular shape. Of course (he bitumen of iuwer I'alcstino has been known from immemorial times, nnd wa* used to impart solidity to the structures of unbaked clay in Assyria aud Egypt; ’but it \ may be said that the discovery of the sub- | terrnnean combustible has lifted once| f or | nil the curse which has so long rested upon j Sodom and Gomorrah, and will transform i the wasted shores of the Dead Sea into a | focus of industry and a magniine of wealth.