114 EDWARD HULL, M.A., LL.D., F.R.S., F.G.S., ON THE 



and the inflowing oceanic Avaters brought with them new 

 specific and generic forms, of which the most remarkable 

 were the Nummuhte foraminifera. Throughout the region of 

 Northern x\frica and Western Asia, there does not appear to 

 have been much flexuring, or denudation, of the Cretaceous 

 strata previous to the overspread of the Eocene Avaters ; so 

 that the junction of the two formations bears the character 

 rather of a hiatus than that of unconformity of stratifica- 

 tion. 



T/ie Miocene 2'>^nocl. — "We have now arrived at an epoch 

 which by universal consent is recognised as one of great 

 terrestrial changes in the region here described. To the 

 close of the Eocene period Ave may refer not only the uprise 

 of the Alps, Pyrenees, Carpathians, and other ranges having 

 E. and W. axes, such as the Atlas in Africa, but also the 

 great subsidence along the line of the JMediterranean basin. 

 Large porti(nis of Africa and Western Asia became dry land 

 for the first time, and tlie chief physical features of the 

 Palestine area may be considered to haA^e received their 

 incipient outlines. To this epoch may also be referred the 

 Jordan-Arabah depression along the line of the great fault, 

 or system of faults ; and the formation by upheaval on the 

 one hand, and depression on the other of the Gulfs of Akabah, 

 of Suez, and the Red Sea. HoAVCA-er, depression of a local 

 kind again ensued, for inarine strata of Miocene age are found 

 in detached areas over parts of Northern Africa and the 

 Libyan Desert, as Zittel has sIioaa^i,* as also in the Isle of 

 Cyprus,t along the shores of Asia Minor,| in Italy and Sicily, 

 Candia, the South of France, Algeria, and other tracts ; 

 AA'hile the Avhule of the island of Malta is formed of strata 

 referable to this (Miocene) period.§ It is therefore probable 

 that this central part of the Mediterranean area remained 

 submerged during the period of post-Eocene movements. 



We are noAV approaching the critical point of our inquiry^ 

 but the preceding statements seem necessary in order to lead 

 up to it. 



* Zittel, Ueber den Geoloaischen Bau der Lihyschen Wuste. Munclien, 

 1880. 



t Spratt, Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc, vol. xxiii, p. 283. Gaudry, Geologie 

 de Visle de Chypre, Mem. de la Soc. Geol. de France (1862). linger and 

 Kotschy, Die Insil Cypfrn. Wieu, 18(!5, 



% De Tchibatcheff, iivr les depots de VAsie Mineure, Bull. <]e la Soc. Geol. 

 de France, 2 ser. 1 8o0. 



§ Spratt, supra cit., p. 293 ; Prestwicli, Gcolof/y, vol. ii, p. 409. 1888. 



