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strike-lights. I obtained numbers of sucli surface specimens, 

 evidently of more recent date than the old gravels above 

 referred to, and whose mode of occurrence renders it impos- 

 sible to decide as to their origin or antiquity. There is no 

 foundation in fact for the statement that flint in Egypt has 

 been imported from a distance for the manufacture of imple- 

 ments. Flint nodules occur in the limestones throughout the 

 Nile valley, and are abundant in the debris derived from their 

 waste ; and though flakes and chips are numerous near tombs, 

 quarries, and village sites, they are also very abundant in the 

 places where the flint is found. I found no large hatchets of 

 "^ palaeolithic " form in Egypt, but purchased a spear-like 

 weapon of polished slate, said to have been found in a tomb, 

 and a beautiful little polished hatchet of jade, perforated for 

 suspension as an ornament. 



I may add that the hardened gravel and silt above referred 

 to aSbrded no fossils, except those in limestone pebbles, and a 

 few irregular root-like bodies in the finer bands, and which 

 may have been aquatic plants, and would go to confirm the 

 conclusion that the beds were deposited under water. 



The Lebanon Mountains, composed as they are principally 

 of horizontal or slightly inclined beds of limestone of different 

 degress of hardness, and traversed by many faults and fissures, 

 are eminently suited for the production of caverns and rock 

 shelters available for human residence or for sheltering animals, 

 and such caverns accordingly abound in most parts of the 

 range, and have, from the earliest periods, been employed for 

 these purposes. These caverns are, with respect to their 

 origin, of two kinds, — river caverns and sea-cliff caverns. 



The former have been excavated by streams running under- 

 ground along lines of fissure which they have enlarged into 

 tunnels. A remarkable example of this kind is the Grotto of 

 the Nahr-el-Kelb, or Dog River, the ancient Lycus, which 

 was explored in 1873 by Messrs. Marshall, Bliss, Bi-igstoke, 

 and Huxley, and found to extend for 1,256 yards, and to 

 expand into larg-e halls with magnificent stalactites. Another 

 is that from which the neighbouring mountain stream of Ant 

 EHas issues like a gigantic fountain. These water-caves may 

 ultimately become dry, by the streams finding a lower level, 

 either in the rock itself or in some adjacent ravine, this being, 

 pei'haps, sometimes determined by the partial falling-in or 

 choking of the cavern itself. In the ravine of Ant Elias, in 

 addition to the present water-cave, there is one which has 

 become perfectly dry, and there are remains of others which 

 have been cut into and unroofed by the further excavation of 

 the ravine. 



