6 INTRODUCTION. 



Fraas, no trace of any stratified rocks older than the Cretaceous formation. The 

 Geologische Skizze einer Reise (lurch Paldstina and das Libanongehiet* of Professor G. vom 

 Eath, published in 1881, makes good to that date the above statement of Fraas. But at 

 Mejdel esh Shems, a village situated at an elevation of 1,340 meters upon the south- 

 easterly slope of Mount Hermon, — the southern extremity of Anti-Lebanon, — Eev. 

 Edwin E. Lewis, late Professor of Chemistry and Geology in the Syrian Protestant 

 College at Beirut, discovered and identified what Fraas styles a mere "strip" or "patch" 

 {fleck) of true Jurassic strata. Of this remarkable exposure of steeply tilted beds, inter- 

 posed between Cretaceous rocks, one layer, a light-colored, efflorescent calcareous marl, 

 extends upwards, forming the highest point of Mount Hermon, where Professor Lewis 

 collected specimens of EhynchoncUa lacunosa Schlotheim sp., a characteristic fossil of the 

 Oxford Clay in Germany and France, and found at the lower level of Mejdel esh Shems 

 in countless numbers. The layer of most importance in connection with tlie collections 

 here considered is a " gray -black clay," a meter and a half thick, which imbeds the Juras- 

 sic Ammonites presently to be noticed, — species before known from the Ornati Clay of 

 the uppermost Brown Jura of Europe. It seems altogether probable that more detailed 

 exploration of this highly interesting district will reveal other outcrops of Jurassic 

 strata. 



The publications of Professor Fraas have been our only means of fixing with any 

 degree of certainty the stratigraphic position of the various species enumerated in the 

 following pages. That distinguished geologist in his earlier journey satisfied himself 

 that the whole line from Jaffa to the Dead Sea passes over strata which belong to the 

 Turonian and Senonian stages of the Upper Cretaceous, in this respect confirming the 

 previously formed conclusion of Lartet. The Cretaceous strata of Lebanon are divided 

 by Fraas into nine stages, or zones, as follows : — 



1. The Glandarius zone, consisting of Dolomite, Marble, and Oolite, wath clayey intef- 

 layers, marked by Cidarites glandarius. 



2. The Sandstone stage, with Trigonia Syriaca and Astarte Lihanotica. With this 

 division the eruptive Melaphyrs- are closely associated ; and to it also belong the coal- 

 beds which occur in the spring-district of the Nahr el Beirut. 



3. The Gasteropod zone of Abeih : f Limestone, Marl, Dolomite, with Nerineae, 

 Cerithia, and Turritellse. 



4. The Cardium bed : brown Limestone strata with casts of Cardia. 



5. The zone of Ammonites Syriacus, two hundred meters thick, consisting of gray 

 Limestones, containing Pterocerae, Hippurites, Orbituluiae, Ostrete, etc. 



* Verliandlungen des Naturliistoriclieu Vercines der Preussisclien Rliciid.indp undT\'pstf:ilciis, XXX'S III. 

 pp. 66-114, Bonn, 18S1. 



f Tills summary of the nine zones is substantially that presented by vom Ttath (op. cit., p. 103). By 

 comparison with page 13 of this memoir, it will be observed that the thlek bed of Sandstone (forty meters) 

 there noticed as lying at the base of this zone is not here mentioned. Is the omission au error, or due to the 

 fact that the Sandstone is not fossil-bearing, and so not an essential part of the zone ? 



