LOT (

See also:

• LAT

Lat. Oltis)  , a river of southern France flowing westward across the central plateau, through the departments of Lozere, Aveyron, Lot and Lot-et-Garonne . Its length is about 30o m., the area of its basin 4444 sq. m . The river rises in the Cevennes on the Mont du Goulet at a height of 4918 ft. about 15 M . E. of Mende, past which it flows . Its upper course lies through gorges between the Causse of Mende and Aubrac Mountains on the north and the tablelands (causses) of Sauveterre, Severac and Comtal on the south . Thence its sinuous course crosses the plateau of Quercy and entering a wider fertile plain flows into the Garonne at Aiguillon between Agen and Marmande . Its largest tributary, the Truyere, rises in the Margeride mountains and after a circuitous course joins it on the right at Entraygues (department of Aveyron), its affluence more than ' The district is thus regarded as the place where the Hebrews, on the one side, and the Moabites and Ammonites, on the other, commence their independent history . Whilst the latter settle across the Jordan, Abraham moves down south to Hebron . 2 Tradition points to the Jebel Usdum (cp. the name Sodom) at the S.W. end of the Dead Sea . It consists almost entirely of pure crystallized salt with pillars and pinnacles such as might have given rise to the story (see Driver, Genesis, p . 201; and cf. also Palestine Explor . Fund, Quart .

Statements, 1871, p. i6, 1885, p . 20;

Conder, Syrian Stone-lore, p . 279 seq.) . Jesus cites the story of Lot and his wife to illustrate the sudden coming of the !ingdom of God (Luke xvii . 28-32) . The history of the interpretation of the legend by the early and medieval church down to the era of rational and scientific investigation will be found in A . D . White, Warfare of Science with Theology, ii. ch. xviii . doubling the volume of the river . Lower down it receives the Dourdou de Bozouls (or du Nord) on the left and on the right the Cele above Cahors (department of Lot), which is situated on a peninsula skirted by one of the river's many windings . Villeneuve-sur-Lot (department of Lot-et-Garonne) is the only town of any importance between this point and its mouth . The Lot is canalized between Bouquies, above which there is no navigation, and the Garonne (16o m.) .