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ORDINAEY MEETING, May 6, 1884. 

 (Specially held at the Society of Arts House.) 

 Sir H. Baekly, G.C.M.G., K.C.B., E.R.S., m the Chair. 

 The minutes of the last meeting were read and confirmed. 



The Chairman — I have now the honour of introducing Dr. Dawson,* 

 Vice-Chancellor of McGill University, Montreal, who has kindly prepared 

 for this Institute a statement of the results of his researches during a 

 recent tour in Egypt and Syria in relation to the indications there manifested 

 of the former occupation of those countries by a primitive race of man. 



[Sir W. Dawson was received with much applause by the audience, which 

 filled the large theatre of the Society of Arts in every part. He read the 

 following paper.] 



NOTES ON FBEHI8T0BIG MAN IN EGYPT AND TEE 

 LEBANON. Sir J. W. Dawson, K.C.M.G., LL.D., F.R.S.^ 



IN my recent visit to Egypt and Syria, I was very desirous 

 to learn as mucli as possible respecting the traces of 

 prehistoric men in these countries. In Egypt I was un- 

 successful in obtaining any certain evidence of the existence 

 of man earlier than the historical period ; but in Northeni 

 Syria, following in the footsteps of Canon Tristram and other 

 explorers, more satisfactory results were obtained, and which 

 may contribute something to the facts already known. 



Considerable attention has recently been given to the 

 question of the existence of prehistoric man in Egypt, in 

 • consequence of the discovery of worked flints in various parts 

 of the countr}^ More especially I may refer to the papers of 

 Sir John Lubbock, Mr. Jukes-Browne, Captain Burton, 

 Mr. Greg, and General Pitt-Rivers, in the Journal of the 

 Anthropological Institute, and that of Professor Haynes in 

 the Journal of the American Academy of Sciences. 



Egypt abounds in material for flint-working. Certain 

 beds of the Eocene limestone hold numerous, and often large 

 flint nodules, and, where these beds have been removed by 

 denudation, the residual flints are widely scattered over the 

 desert surfaces. There are also beds of gravel largely cotn- 



* Dr. Dawson was knighted shortly afterwards, — Ed. 

 VOL. XVIII. ' X 



