120 EDWAUl) IILIJ., iM.A., LL.O., I'.K.S.. l-'.O.S., ON TlIK 



Such were the i-oiulilioiis iiiuler Avliii-h a eomniuiiity of 

 freshwater faunas anu)ni;st the trilnitarii's of the IMediter- 

 raiie;;n seems to have been brought about ; at least, siu'h is 

 the view which I venture to submit to the Institute; ami 

 havinp; thus broug'lit my proposed task to a eouchision, 1 

 might k\ive the matter as it stands, but I may be permitted 

 beftn-e 1 eonehule to refer brietly to the subsequent ehanges 

 whieh the rc-gion t)f the AbMliterranean area underwent after 

 the post-Miot'ene epoi'h.* 



Pliocene sii/niit'iyeiwc. — Anu»ng"st the niunerous changes 

 which this region has undergone, none are better estabhshed 

 than the submergence to a limited extent in the later 

 Pliocene times. AVith this submergence the waters of the 

 Atlantic flowed into the i\b'diterranean basin in one ilirection 

 and those of the l\ed Sea in the other, and permanently 

 established marine conditions. The upper limit (^f this 

 depression is marked throughout Kgypr, Palestine and Syria. 

 Cyprus.t Sicily, and the bordering tracts of the Mediterranean 

 by beaches of sand, gravel ami marls with sea-shells, rising 

 from 1")0 tt) oOO feet above the present surface of the waters. 

 To this stage belong the raised beaches t)f .lehel IMokattam 

 at a level of 220 behiml Cairo, and the border districts of 

 Philistia and the coast (»f the Lebanon.^ Whether the salt 

 Avaters of the ]Mediterranean at this period entered the 

 .lordanio valley by the Esdraelon plain cannot be determined, 

 but it may be supposiMl that they wer(.> to a great extent 

 excluded owing to the higher level of the Jordanic waters 

 themselves. In any case, the narrow channel of connection, 

 if such exitited, appears to have been insufficient to destroy 

 the tishes of the great lake, which was over 200 miles in 

 length. 40 in breadth, and about 2.500 feet in depth. 



This late Pliocene submergem'c. extemling into the Pleis- 

 tocene epoch, was followetl by a tinal upraisingof the sea-bed, 

 and the establishment of the existing conditions of land and 

 sea over the region bordering the Levant. There are few 

 regions on the siu'face of the globe in which the oseillationi 

 (.f the land can be so clearly followed as in that which is the 

 subject of this paper. 



* ]iuriiig tlie lu'viod of elevation we have been disrussiny wo may 

 supjiose that the Nile waters ermled their ehaniiel down to thesoHd Uine- 

 stone tloor, whieli at vavyiug dei>ths underlies tlie modern alluvial 

 tleposits. t Albert Caudiv, Oc'olopie dc I'Uc ile C/ii/prc. AVien, 1805. 



;f Sir J. W. Dawson, Modern i>t'ience in Bd>le Lands, i)p. 448, 4oG. 1888. 



