16 ANNUAL 
the Arabah Valley, what had been surmised by former 
observers, that the Jordan-Arabah depression is due pri- 
marily to a great fault, or fracture, of the strata, running 
generally along the base of the Moabite and Edomite hills, 
along which the strata have been displaced; those on the 
west having been relatively lowered with reference to those on 
the east, to the extent of 1,000 feet and upwards.* On this 
account it is that the Nubian sandstone formation appears 
along the eastern side of the Ghor, but never on the western, 
that side being formed of Cretaceous limestone; while, in the 
southern part of the Arabah Valley, the eastern side is formed 
of still more ancient crystalline rocks. The elevation of the 
low saddle or watershed which crosses the Arabah Valley from 
side to side was also determined to be about 700 feet at a 
distance of forty-five miles from the head of the Gulf of 
Akabah; and I came to the same conclusion as Professor 
Lartet, that the waters of the Jordan never flowed into that 
gulf, but that, on the contrary, ever since the land emerged 
from the ocean, there had been a continuous ridge separating 
the waters on either hand.+ 
I have endeavoured in the Gedlogical Memoir to trace the 
succession of operations and events by which the Jordan- 
Arabah Valley has been formed, and must content myself 
here with stating that, as the whole region was under 
the bed of the sea down to the close of the Hocene 
period, the elevation of the land, together with the de- 
velopment of the main physical features, may be referred to 
the succeeding Miocene—a period remarkable for physical 
disturbances and great denudation of the strata over the 
Kuropasian continent, 'and the adjoining parts of Africa. 
(4.) The formation of the table-land east of the Jordan- 
Arabah depression was a necessary result of the physical 
operations by which this depression itself was formed. The 
strata which were lowered on the west, were elevated on 
the east, side of the great fault, and have been converted 
into a high table-land with an average level of 5,000 feet 
* This view has been advanced by Tristram, Land of Israel, and Lartet, 
Géologie de la Mer Morte, but the actual line of fracture had not previously 
been traced along the Wady el Arabah. 
+ In a recent review of the Geological Memoir in the Saturday Review, 
April 17, the writer advocates the view that a river originally poured its 
waters into the sea on the site of the present Gulf of Akabah, and that the 
depressions and ridges crossing the valley are due to movements of the crust 
which took place subsequently to the north and south faulting. This view 
has been deliberately rejected by both Dr. Lartet and myself, for reasons 
which I have fully explained in the July number of the Quarterly 
Statement P. E. F. 
