\i 299 



Thus^ in tlie Lebanon^ we appear to have evidence o£ ante- 

 diluvian or post-glacial cave-dwellers, belonging to the earliest 

 known races of men^ and of later Troglodytes and flint people, 

 who must have continued in the country till it was colonised 

 by the Canaanites and Phoenicians, and who may have occupied 

 the remoter glens of the mountains down to a comparatively 

 recent time. 



It is to be observed here that the present bare condition of 

 these mountains must be quite different fi'om their primitive 

 state, when they must have been clothed with forests, and 

 were probably "inhabited by many kinds of game long since 

 extinct. In this state, also, they would be much more 

 abundantly watered than at present, and would possess a 

 more equable, though on the whole cooler, climate. 



It is also interesting to note the possible connexion of at 

 least the later cave-dwellers of the Lebanon with some of 

 those primitive peoples referred to by Moses in the Book of 

 Deuteronomy, as having inhabited Palestine before its colonisa- 

 tion by the Canaanites and Semites. 



If we endeavour, in conclusion, to sum up the later geo- 

 logical history of the Lebanon district, we may conclude that, 

 like other parts of Syria, it experienced considerable elevatory 

 movements at the close of the Eocene period, and further 

 elevation in the Pliocene; that in the Pleistocene period it 

 was submerged to the extent of several hundred feet, and at 

 this time many of the ancient sea-cliffs and caverns were cut; 

 and that in the early modern or post-glacial age it partook of 

 the elevation which at this time seems to have affected the 

 whole coasts of the Mediterranean. It may have been in this 

 time of elevation, when there was probably much more land 

 at the eastern end of the Mediterranean, that men first 

 appeared and took possession of the country, and established 

 themselves in the caves. These, however, they probably 

 occupied only at those seasons when they needed such shelter, 

 or when they resorted to the hills in pursuit of game. They 

 may have had other stations, now submerged, in the low grounds 

 or by the sea-coast. This state of things was closed by the 

 great post-glacial submergence or deluge, of which we are 

 now finding so many evidences in different parts of the woi*ld, 

 and after this the present geographical conditions were estab- 

 lished, and the period of history commenced. In this, the 

 country, then wooded and tenanted by wild animals, was first 

 occupied by rude tribes, pi'obably of Turanian or Hamite 

 oriafin, and afterwards bv the more civilised Phoenicians. 



