292 



The second class of caverns, — those excavated by the sea, — 

 may be seen in process of formation at many places on the 

 coast, where the waves have cut into fissures or have undercut 

 the harder beds. They are usually not very deep, and are 

 often mere shelters or overhanging ledges. Such caverns are 

 frequent on the old inland cliffs which have been subjected to 

 erosion when the land stood at a lower level. Caverns of 

 both these classes contain evidences of their use by man. 



The remains of an ancient cavern were discovered in 1864 

 by the Rev. Canon Tristram in the celebrated maritime pass 

 at the mouth of the Nahi'-el-Kelb, and were thus described 

 by him : — 



" The position of this mass of bone was several feet above 

 the height of the present roadway, but below the level of the 

 ancient Egyptian track. The remains extend for perhaps 

 124 feet, and it has probably formed the flooring of an ancient 

 cavern, the roof of which must have been cut away by Eameses 

 to form his road or to obtain a surface for his tablet. From the 

 position of the deposit, it would seem as though the floor of 

 the cave had once extended to the sea-face of the cliff, and 

 that the remaining portion was excavated by Antonine for his 

 road, leaving only the small portion which we examined.''^ 

 (He then notices the fallen masses of breccia which have 

 been thrown down on the talus formed in making the road.) 

 ''The bones are all in fragments, the remains, in all pro- 

 bability, of the feasts of the makers of the rude implements. 

 Four of the teeth have belonged to an ox somewhat resembling 

 the ox of our peat-mosses, and one of them probably to a 

 bison. Of the others, some may probably be assigned to the 

 red-deer or reindeer, and another to an elk.^^ 



Lartet has described the caves of this district in his geo- 

 logical report of the expedition of the Due de Luynes, and 

 Fraas has devoted some space to them m Aus clem Orient. 

 The latter specifies as found in these caverns, Ursus arctos, 

 Fells spelcea, Rliinoceros tichorhinus, Bos priscus, Sus loriscus, 

 and remains of- Equus, Gervus, and Gapra, an assemblage 

 which may well be called prehistoric, even in a country 

 whose history extends so far back as that of Syria. Lartet, 

 however, mentions only species of stag, goat, antelope, &c., 

 all of them believed to have been found in the Lebanon in 

 early historic times. 



I had the pleasure of visiting this place in company with 

 Rev. Dr. Bliss, of the Beyrout College, in February last, and 

 endeavoured, as far as possible, to supplement and perfect the 

 observations of Canon Tristram (PL I., Fig. 2). 



At the point in question, the present road, which is probably 



