330 PROFESSOR E. HULL, LL.D., F.R.S., F.G.8., ON THE 
There can be little doubt that these old river terraces are 
the fluviatile representatives of the ancient sea-beaches of 
Lower Egypt, formed during the latest submersion of the 
region bordering the Levant. The First Cataract is ata 
level of about 100 métres above the present sea, which is a 
little higher than the level of the old sea-beach at Mokattam 
and Ghizeh; so that when the waters rose to this level, they 
extended nearly to the First Cataract, above which the Nile 
waters, thus dammed back, and probably very much more 
abundant than at the present day, spread over large tracts 
of alluvial land, clearly described by Dr. Leith Adams as 
stretching for miles away beyond the present river margin. 
During the same period, with the submersion of the present 
plain of Lower Egypt, the Mediterranean and the Red Sea 
were united, and strips of varying width along the coasts of 
these two seas were overspread by the waters, including a 
large part of Philistia, the vale of Achre, and the coasts of 
Asia Minor and Cyprus. As I have endeavoured to show 
elsewhere, the waters of the Jordan rose so high as to fill 
the whole valley to a level of about 1,400 feet above the 
present surface of the Dead Sea, forming a lake of about 
120 miles from north to south, that is, about 100 feet above 
the present surface of the Mediterranean.* 
It now remains to consider what may be the precise period 
in the physical history of Egypt to which the submergence 
above described is to be referred. First, it is clear from the 
species of shells, both marine and flaviatile, that it is very 
recent. Nearly all the forms are those still surviving in the 
Red Sea, notwithstanding the great change this sea has 
undergone since it was cut off from the Mediterranean on 
the emergence of the land. Again, there is every reason 
for supposing that it was a period of excessive rainfall over 
the now arid regions south of the Mediterranean. In looking 
at the map, or examining the country itself, we are struck by 
the large and deep valleys which must have been once the 
channels of rivers, but are now permanently dry. The valleys 
entering the Nile from both sides show great deposits of 
ancient river gravel and sand, sometimes cut down into by ~ 
* According to the measurements of the officers of the Ordnance 
Survey, the surface of the Dead Sea is 1,292 feet below that of the Medi- 
terranean. The old terraces of the Jordan Valley have been described by 
Canon Tristram in his Land of Israel, 2nd Edit ; by Dr. Lartet in his 
Voyage Wd’ Exploration de la Mer Morte, and the Author, Geol. Arabia 
Petrea and Palestine, 
