"Because the intense heat and pressure are almost sure to prove fatal to others than the few Laplesx Arab nomads that manage to survive in the region, this area has not been tensively studied by scientists. It at first thought that there is no evidence of recent volcanic action and that the traditional destruction lof the cities by a rain of fire and brimstone may have referred to the explosion of pockets of crude petro-Jleum. A scientist who visited the region in 1909, however, reported 'a small extinct' voleano near the north-eastern corner of the Dead Sea near the reputed site of Sodom and concluded that a shower of ashes from this vent may have caused the catastrophe so vividly described in Genesis."
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.