April 30, 1885] 



NA TURE 



615 



that Dr. Lartet a 1 - lebrated Jebel Usdon 



of the lead Sea, a place within the Cretaceous 

 But Hull's party have obtained evidence which lead-, 

 1:1 is not of Cretaceou 

 rather be! ■• 1 the Dead Sea basin. This, in 



ly point where their conclusions differ 

 die French gei I 

 I nor in Egypt is there any sharp line of 



demarcation between the Chalk and the Tertiary rock-, bul the 

 the 1 the Upper 



1 .. hardly any variation in their characters. And yet, 



intological boundary between the 

 ; 1 the Eocene is clearly defined, notw 

 lepo That author h. 



Nummulitic bed a single charac- 

 teristic chalk fossil : neither did he ever find a nummulite in the 

 chalk strata. 



d. Pest-nuvtmuIUic Racks outside the area of the I 

 basin. — There is considerable difference of opinion as to the age 

 of the formations that were deposited subsequent to 

 heaval of the Cretaceo-nummulitic sea-bed. Those at the 

 Isthmus of Suez are especially interesting. I awson has named 

 them the " Isthmian deposits," and considers them to be later 

 than the Miocene. They occupy the highest land just north of 

 Ismailia — thin-bedded grey limestones with vermicular holes 

 resting on marls, sands, and clays, mostly destitute 1 

 but with some layers holding fresh-water shells, especially 

 /Etheria caillauii, which is also found in the Chalouf cutting. 

 He concludes that a branch of the Nile discharged hereabouts, 

 not into a marine estuary, but into a lake sometime- -all and 

 fresh. The greater part of these "Isthmian de- 

 1 Dead Sea, presently 



The pe iod of their formation was a con- 

 lacial. 

 The subject of the recent raised beaches of 1 1 R 



ing of these up >n the question of the 

 route of '. I 



It, and the Dead Sea Basin.— It was 

 pointed out that Prof. Hull, in a lecture given at Dublin two 

 i, maintained the River theory in opposition to the 

 Lake basin theory, insisting that such a river flowed s utherly 

 from the ! te gorge of the Arabah int. the 



Red Sea. Durinj . according to this author, 



the overflow of the Jordanic lake was again through the 

 Arabah in a southward direct] were thrown upon 



relative levels were main- 

 tained, an overflow would take place through the I 

 Jezreel, at a point only 285 feet above sea-level, I( 

 watershed of the Arabah still 375 feet above such a J ord 



■ again brought out in considering the scheme 



1 uial. 



An account of the physical and geological structure of the 



Arabal sed chiefly upon Hull's summary, and 



! yal Engineers in the late survey. The 



longitudinal i< li"ii, by Major Kitchener and Sergeant-Major 



, very fine piece of work, and sets a 



ever the question of level in the long valley between the Red Sea 



lying an admiral ' 

 the eastern flanl ctraordinary valley in the 



world. Tl Dead Sea fault recognised by Von Buch, 



Hitchcock. Lartet, and others was ; down the 



Arabah. cl of the eastern mountains. Prof. 



I laces, two cro 



ar. given, showing the sedimentaries faulted against the crystall- 



I faults near the base of M 

 serve to 1 lomena with very curious and picturesque 



1'rof. Hull in his !„ ,:.. ■■ Mounl 



The pin dislocations, and 



with the undoubted existence of the Dead Sen holl 

 independ. I ick from a high antiquity, were 



partially di-cusse I. The Deal Sea basin is separate' 1 from the 



insisting of 



hard lime in part by sand- and gravels. This has 



ion of 66o feet, and i- 45 miles from the hea 

 Gulf; 29 1 1 north the sea-level : 



I ! ■ : I ;. I. through which tic- - mthern section of 



have to be cut, is 74 n 

 with a in.' of 660 feet, and a pro 1 



250 feet. 



Further proof was obtained of the independent character of 

 the basin north of the watershed in marl deposits at an eleva- 

 tion of 1400 feet above the present Dead Sea level ; tf^e con 

 tain species of Melanin and Melanop is identical wdth some of 

 those now existing in the fresh portions of the Jordanic ba in. 

 Hence there is little doubt that we must carry the succe sive lakes 

 mentioned by Capt. Conder some -t.igcs higher than had been 

 supposed previously. It was noted also, as bearing on this sub- 

 ject, that the old marls of the Jordanic lakes are not s:. unfossil- 

 iferousas M. Lartet would lead us to suppose. Tristram describes 

 onespeciesof Melanin and two of Melanopsis as abundant in a 

 semi-fossil condition in several of these old marl deposits. 



Next comes the consideration of a problem which results from 



the adoption of the independent lake-basin theory — viz. " Since 



I Sea has no outlet, wdiat has become of the materials 



that have disappeared ? " Seeing that the lateral wadies are, in 



the main, gorges of erosion, thediffu ulty is still further enhanced. 



i has been some connection in past time between this 



curious hollow aid the volcanic outbursts of the Jaulan, &c, 



is not improbable ; indeed, it has long been suspected that an 



explanation of the phenomenon might, in part at least, be found 



in thi direction. There is a partially analogous case in the 



meidional trough with it- string of charming lakes, some fresh 



.dt. which, Mr. Thompson tell- 11-, extends along the 



I : African volcano, Mount Kenia : the 



fresh-water lake, baringo, 3200 feet above sea-level, occupies the 



lowest depression of tin- great hollow. 



III. The suggested Jordan Valley Canal.— The remainder of 

 the paper was occupied in considering the northern section, by 

 which the waters of the Mediterranean are to be admitted into 

 the Jordanic basin, so as to convert it into an inland sea. If 

 taken through the Yale of Esdraelon into the valley of the 

 Jalucl (Jezreel), between Little llermon and the Gilboa range, 

 the length would be about 25 miles, starting from the port of 

 Haifa under Mount Carmel. The height of land is 285 feet, 

 and the mean depth of the cutting to the water-surface would be 

 aboul 150 feet, without including the depth of the canal itself. 

 The surface of the Vale of Esdraelon consists mainly of Post- 

 Tertiary loams, &c, below which hard limestone, and possibly 

 basalt, 'would have to be encounlere 1. The alternative of a 

 railway was discussed. 



CHINESE rUSECT-WHJTE WAX 



A PARLIAMENTARY paper which has recently been pub- 

 lished (China, No. 2. 1SS5) contains a report of a 

 journey through Central Sze-chu'an, which was made by 

 Mi. II isie, consular agent at Chutig-king, chiefly for the 

 purpose of collecting information on the subject of insect white 

 i ".ens of the insect wax-trees, and forms of the wax 

 product, at the request of Sir Joseph Hooker. The report 

 the country tr. ' !e and trading capabili- 



uch information as was attainable on any commercial 

 product of tiie district : but the portion relating to insect white 

 wax is the most interesting part of the paper. 



tree " is the name given by the Chinese in the 

 Sze-chu'an to what is probably the Ligustrum 

 . botanists. The point will doubtless be decided at 

 Kew by the specimens which Mr. Hosie has sent home. _ It is 

 also called the winter-green or evergreen tree ; while in the 

 east of the province it is known as the "crackling flea tree," 

 owing, it is said, to the sputtering of the woad when burned. 

 It is an evergreen, with leaves which spring in pairs from the 

 They are thick, dark green, glossy, ovate, and 

 pointed. In the end of May or beginning of June the tree 

 ■is of smali white flowers, which give place to small 

 seeds of a dark blue colour. In the month of May, [883, Mr. 

 He ,iid attached to the bark of the boughs and twigs nume- 



• ncrescenees or gall-, in vari 1 

 nent. In the earlier stages they looked like minute 

 univalve- clinging to the bark. The larger galls were readily 

 d . and, when opened, presented either awhitey-brown 



, or a crowd of minute animals, whose move nents 

 were only ju.-t perceptible to the naked eye. Last year an 

 opportunity of examining these galls and their content- 

 minuteness in the chief wax-producing locality in the province 

 presented itself. They are very brittle, and there was found, 

 on opening them, a swarm of brown creatures, like minute lice, 

 each with six legs and a pair of club antenna; crawling- about. 

 The great majority of the galls also contained either i small 



