CAUSE FOE THE OEIGIN OF THE TRADITION OF THE FLOOD. 279 



where it is worn back, and forms cliffs 30 to 40 feet high. 

 The present torrents cut through this drift and cany down 

 its debris, spreading it out on the coast in the form of cones 

 of dejection, in which it has often become re-cemented hke 

 the okler breccia from which it is derived. On the adjacent 

 iskmd of Cerigo, Ossiferous Fissures, said to contain human 

 remains, occur on the summit of an isolated fiat-topped hiU. 

 This discovery has never been followed up. 



Asia Minor. A Raised Beach, 5 to 30 feet above the present 

 sea level, surrounds Cyprus, but it does not appear to be 

 accompanied by a head, though a sandy bed, " like Loess," 

 overlies it in places. Nor is there any record of Ossiferous 

 breccia or fissures. This may be owing to the submergence 

 here having been small. 



On the coast of Palestine* Raised Beaches range up to the 

 height of 220 feet or more, but 1 cannot find any record of an 

 overlying rubble or head, unless it be represented in part by a 

 bed of red sand near Beyrout, described by iSir William Dawson. 

 Traces of a bone-breccia, of uncertain relations, have also 

 been found near Beyrout, and detrital deposits are alluded to. 

 The best preserved bone-cave there appears to be of Neo- 

 lithic age. No distinct Ossiferous Fissures have been noticed. 

 I conclude that the submergence, if any, of this district must 

 have been small, whilst of its extension eastward or north- 

 ward we want further evidence. Monsieur L. Lartet states 

 that stone implements of the Palasolithic type have been 

 found near Bethlehem, and in some other places; but they 

 were on the sm'face, and give us no clue to the circumstances 

 which led to their being in their present position. 



North Africa. The coast of North Africa presents con- 

 firmatory evidence. It is fringed by Raised Beaches — one in 

 particular, 10 to 40 feet above the sea-level, is very constant. 

 Ossiferous Fissures are met with on the coast of Tetuan, 

 Orau and other places in Algeria. They present the same 

 characters and contain the remains of similar animals as those 

 found at Nice and Gibraltar. The fissures do not, however, 

 seem to extend to the eastward of Algeria, for none have 

 been recorded in the province of Constantino, though there is 



* Louis Lartet, Ge'ologie de la Palesline. Prof. E. Hull's Western 

 Palestine. 



