ADDRESS. 13 
Isthmus of Suez along the coast to the base of Mount 
Carmel. 
2. The second includes the table-land of Western Palestine 
and the Desert of the Tih (Badiet-et-Tih). 
3. The third is the line of depression of the Jordan-Arabah 
valley already referred to. 
4. The fourth is the elevated table-land of Edom (Mount 
Seir) and Moab, stretching eastwards into the Syrian and 
Arabian Deserts. 
5. The fifth is the Peninsula of Sinai, lying between the 
Gulfs of Akabah and Suez, and to the south of the table-land 
of Badiet-et-Tih. 
(1.) The maritime district is in some measure a continuation 
of the plain of Lower Egypt. It has an average elevation 
of about 200 feet, and is largely formed of sands and gravels, 
with shells now living in the Mediterranean waters adjoining. 
These and other deposits evince that the land has been 
upraised to an extent of over 200 to 300 feet within very 
recent times, commencing with the Pliocene and coming down 
to the post-Pliocene epochs. A remarkable coast-line—first 
discovered by Oscar Fraas amongst the Mokattam hills 
near Cairo, at a level of 220 feet above the Gulf of Suez 
—has been recognised also in several places by the members 
of the Expedition in the Arabah Valley and Southern 
Palestine, and is also represented in the coast districts of 
Syria and Cyprus. In consideration of the recent period of 
this partial submergence, I have suggested that at the time of 
“the Exodus ” the land had not fully regained its present 
level; and that, consequently, the waters of the Gulf of Suez 
extended as far north as the Great Bitter Lake, forming an 
arm of the sea, across which the Israelitish host had to make 
their passage in the miraculous manner recorded in the 
Bible. Such a view is in accordance with the evidences of 
submergence to be found allalong the line of the Great Canal. 
At the period of greatest depression—which Dr. Schwein- 
furth, Sir J. W. Dawson, and the author concur in considering 
to be that of the Pliocene—Africa became an island, and 
the plain of Lower Egypt was covered by the waters of the 
sea, which sent an arm up the Nile valley as far as the First 
Cataract. In the geological memoir already referred to the 
author has given a sketch map representing the relations of 
land and sea during this period.* 
Along this maritime tract runs the high road between 
* Supra cit. Sketch Map, page 72, showing the position of land and sea 
during the Pluvial period. 
