ADDRESS. 11 
branches of human knowledge and belief. I will not detain you longer, 
because you have yet to hear an interesting address from Professor Hull, 
whom I now call upon. 
The following Address was then read by the author :— 
NOTES ON SOME OF THE RESULTS ARRIVED AT 
BY MEMBERS OF THE EXPEDITION SENT OUT 
BY PPE COM MIE TER OH (VAR PALESTINE 
EXPLORATION FUND IN 1883-84 TO ARABIA 
PETRHIA AND WESTERN PALESTINE. By Epwarp 
Hut, LuL.D., F.R.S., &c., Director of the Geological 
Survey of Ireland. 
HAVE much pleasure in complying with the invitation of 
the Council of the Victoria Institute to bring before 
them some of the results and conclusions arrived at by the 
members of the expedition, sent out in 1883-84, by the Com- 
mittee of the Palestine Exploration Fund, for the purpose of 
making a geological reconnaissance through Arabia Petrzea and 
Western Palestine. Referring for fuller details to the narra- 
tive of the Expedition,* and to the memoir on the physical 
geology of the region traversed,t I shall endeavour in this 
communication to give a short account of the leading physical 
features and gealogical structure of this remarkable section of 
our globe; nor will it, | should hope, be considered out of 
place if I make occasional reference to some of the great 
historical events connected with special localities, and their 
bearing on Biblical literature. 
The region to which my observations will be directed is 
bounded by clearly-defined limits, having the Mediterranean 
Sea, and the Isthmus and Gulf of Suez on the west; the Red 
Sea on the south; and the great Arabian and Syrian deserts 
on the east. It includes the remarkable depression of the 
Jordan-Arabah valley, which, commencing on the north at the 
western base of Mount Lebanon, in Coele Syria, ranges south- 
_ward along the line of the Jordan; and, being continued to 
the south of the Dead Sea through the Wady el Arabah, passes 
at Akabah into the Gulf of that name—a total length of 400 
miles if we include the Gulf itself. It was one of the special 
* Mount Seir, Sinai, and Western Palestine; being a Narrative of a 
Scientific Expedition, 1888-84. (Bentley & Son, London, 1885). 
+ Memoir on the Physical Geology and Geography of Arabia Petrea, 
Palestine, and adjoining districts (1886). 
