About 1831 De Geramb, Abbot of La Trappe, evidently a very noble
and devout spirit, sees vapour above the Dead Sea, but stretches
the truth a little--speaking of it as "vapour or smoke." He could
not find the salt statue, and complains of the "diversity of
stories regarding it." The simple physical cause of this
diversity--the washing out of different statues in different
years--never occurs to him; but he comforts himself with the
scriptural warrant for the metamorphosis.[[248]]
But to the honour of scientific men and scientific truth it should
be said that even under Napoleon and the Bourbons there were men
who continued to explore, observe, and describe with the simple
love of truth as truth, and in spite of the probability that their
researches would be received during their lifetime with contempt
and even hostility, both in church and state.
The pioneer in this work of the nineteenth century was the German
naturalist Ulrich Seetzen. He began his main investigation in 1806,
and soon his learning, courage, and honesty threw a flood of new
light into the Dead Sea questions.
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