of Mount Lebanon. 239 



M. de Tchihatcheff has found at Makrikoi, near the gates of 

 Constantinople, certain fossil fishes identical with those of Hakel. 

 Unfortunately this traveller never saw in situ the rock whence 

 the specimens were obtained ; and consequently his notices are 

 of little value, except so far as they attest the geographical 

 extension of the beds of Lebanon. 



We are consequently almost reduced to the strati graphical 

 data furnished by M. Botta in his memoir on Libanus and 

 Antilibanus*. M. Botta distinguishes three principal forma- 

 tions in the Lebanon. He refers the lowest of them to the 

 Upper Jurassic period, the following to the Greensand, and the 

 third, which covers this, to the Lower Cretaceous series. The 

 Lower Chalk is composed of an alternation of limestones and 

 calcareous marls. It is in one of the middle beds of this latter 

 formation that the fishes of Hakel occur. With regard to those 

 of Sahel Alma, they belong, according to M. Botta, to the same 

 group, but may be slightly more ancient. 



The observations made at Hakel by M. Humbert, although 

 very incomplete, tend to confirm the views of this learned French 

 naturalist. We have, in fact, found fossils characteristically 

 Cenomanian (Upper Greensand), such as Orca Taillehurgensis, 

 CardiumHillanum,&cc.,m layers of alternate limestones and marls, 

 which are immediately overlain by the fish-beds. Possibly, in 

 spite of this superposition, these beds may form part of the same 

 group, and be only a phase of the Cenomanian. A circumstance 

 which would lead us to suppose this to be the case is the fact 

 that in proceeding from the bed of the river to a point situated 

 between the village and the deposit of fishes, and mounting per- 

 pendicularly the left flank of the valley, we find a series of cal- 

 careous laminae more or less compact, but without a trace of 

 the fish-bed ; the superior laminae seem, however, to be conti- 

 nuations of those which overlie that bed. We must thence 

 conclude that this latter is superior to the Cenomanian forma- 

 tion, or that it forms part of that formation. If, as we suppose, 

 the Hippurites lumbricalis (and perhaps H. socialis) obtained 

 between Djebail and Hakel are superior to the fishes of Hakel, 

 then these are inferior to the Turonian (Lower White Chalk) 

 formation. 



The beds of Hakel would seem to be prolonged over a very 

 considerable space. The Clupea Beurardi was described by De 

 Blainville from a specimen brought from Gibel (Djebail), and 

 probably emanating from Hakel ; M. Agassiz studied a specimen 

 from Saint-Jean d^Acre. The Clupea brevissima, so abundant at 

 Hakel, is represented in the Museum of Geneva by specimens 



* " Observations on Libanus and Antilibanus," by M. P, E. Botta, jun. 

 (Mem. de la Soc. Geol. de France, tome i., 1st part : Paris, 1833). 



