174 TRANSACTIONS OF THE [APR. 23, 
the ‘‘ Entering in of Hamath,” the northern boundary of the 
promised land, but which was never in fact attained even in the 
palmy days of the Hebrew monarchy. 
The striking feature of the geology of the mountains of Pales- 
tine and Lebanon is the generally level strata of limestone of 
the Cretaceous epoch. In places, especially near the coast, 
these strata are more or less tilted, sometimes quite vertical or 
partly reversed. The general aspect of the stone strongly re- 
sembles that of the Jura, but in many places there are large 
mountain masses of white chalk like that of the cliffs of Dover. 
Near the coast there are isolated flint nodules imbedded in the 
limestone masses, and sometimes strata of considerable thick- 
ness. In many places on Lebanon there are large numbers of 
geodes of quartz, with beautiful crystals in their interior, and 
others of chalcedony, generally of opalescent hues. 
In many places of Lebanon, usually between the altitudes of 
200 and 4,000 feet, are outcropping spurs of sandstone, generally 
red but sometimes yellow, white, or of variegated colors, like the 
sandstone of Wadi Magharah and Sinai. At an altitude of from 
3,000 to 5,000 feet there are beds of coal, too full of earthy 
materials and sulphur to be available as fuel. Iron ore is found 
in considerable quantities in Lebanon, and copper ore exists 
above Sidon. 
Traces of glacier action are found at the cedars of Lebanon, 
which grow on a moraine, and at ’Ammiq, in Celesyria, where 
there is a long line of erratics extending from the mouth of a 
valley of Lebanon a couple of miles over the plain, which is the 
bed of an ancient lake. 
The Nusairy chain is lower than Lebanon, its highest summit 
not being over 4,000 feet in height. It is unexplored geologi- 
cally, but is presumably Cretaceous. It runs northward to the 
latitude of Basit, the ancient Poseidon, twenty miles north of 
Lattakia, where it is joined by the transverse range of Cassius. 
Mt. Cassius is an isolated cone, rising almost precipitously 
from the sea to a height of 6,400 feet. It is a beautiful feature 
of the landscape, and commands a most extended prospect over 
the sea and land. Its base is granite to an altitude of about 
2,500 feet, and the remainder of the mass cretaceous limestone. 
The valley of the Orontes, making a sharp bend to the west, 
intervenes between the ranges of Cassiusand Amanus. Amanus 
is a chain about 100 miles long, extending from Jebel Musa 
on the south to Ziaretdagh on the north. The southernmost 
mountains of this chain are composed of igneous rocks, granite, 
gneiss, porphyry and diorite, which have not reappeared since 
we left them in northern Sinai. Overlying these in places is the 
cretaceous limestone. As one goes northward the igneous rocks 
