CAUSE FOE THE OEIGIN OF THE THADTTION OF THE FLOOD. 209 



rock one obtains not only the fossil shell but the matrix of the 

 shell with, in the case of several varieties of eardinra,the exquisite 

 impressions of the shell in clear cut forms. The remarkable 

 feature of this hillock was its intrusion through the volcanic 

 formation, and near to huge masses of granite then in process of 

 disintegration, many granite rocks, exfoliating in layers like slate 

 and becoming fine granite gravel. I found also large beds of 

 gypsum on the top of the mountains. 



On other islands in the Eed Sea, particularly Jebel Zooghur, the 

 peculiai- features of deep well-worn watei'-courses are observable. 



The Rev. J. M. Mello, M.A., F.G.S., writes :— 



Professor Prestwich has pointed out to us that there is at 

 the present time geological evidence tending to show that a 

 vei-y remarkable submergence of a wide ai^ea of the earth took 

 place " at a comparatively recent period " ; that this was posterior 

 to the glacial period, also to the appearance of Pala3olithic 

 man in Western Europe, but anterior to that of his Neolithic 

 successors. This was the last of those great mai'ine submergences, 

 the records of which we read in the earth's crust, and this being 

 the case, and considering that when it took place man was present, 

 may it not be, as Pi'of. Prestwich suggests, that vast inundation the 

 memory of which has been handed down to us from age to age in 

 the traditions of our race ? May it not also explain the existence 

 of that mysterious break which, in spite of its existence having 

 been disputed by a few geologists, does appear to be a fact, the 

 break between the disappearance of Paleolithic man with the 

 Pleistocene fauna, and the advent of Neolithic man and the estab- 

 lished conditions which have since then prevailed amongst us ? 

 The " Rubble-drift " or " Head " and the Loess are certainly the 

 last traces we have of a marine deposit on a large scale, and that 

 these were, as Prof. Prestwich points out, the result of marine dis- 

 turbance, although conjoined, it may be, with some glacial and 

 terrestrial currents, seems to be beyond question, and that the 

 phenomena embraced an area of vast extent is also clear, although 

 the originating cause was apparently of short duration. 



M. A. de Chambrun de Rosemont in his iJtudes Geologiques sur 

 le Var et le Rhone, etc., has described certain post-pleistocene 

 deposits in the ancient delta of the Var and Rhone and in its 

 neighbourhood, beds which he says " lie in the hollows of erosion 

 and are formed of coarser elements than the pebbles which build 

 up the naass of the delta properly so called." These beds, he remarks, 

 are composed of analogous materials to those of their pleistocene 

 predecessors. Are these in any way similar to those deposits 

 described by Professor Prestwich ? M. de Rosemont ascribes their 

 oi'igin to an abnormal rainfall which succeeded the glacial period, 

 a rainfall which he supposes to have been about one hundred times 

 greater than that of to-day, and which would therefore cause floods 



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