578 



NA TURE 



[April 22, 1886 



Miss Ormerod remarks in the preface to her Report that 

 the rearrangement of these cases, in which are shown 

 insects injurious to crops, fruit, and timber, is now in 

 progress, and promises to be of practical service. " The 

 insects exhibited are for the most part those which are 

 serious in their ravages, and, as far as is possible, they 

 are shown in their various stages (either by specimens, 

 drawings, or models), with samples of injury caused by 

 them accompanying." 



.Appended to the Report are some special observations 

 on the warble-fly or ox-bot-fly. 



ACROSS THE JORDAN 

 Across the yordan : Being an Exploration and Survey 

 of Part of Hattran and Jaulan. By Gottlieb Schu- 

 macher, C.E. With Additions by Laurence Oliphant 

 and Guy Le Strange. (London : R. Bentley and Son, 

 1886.) 



THIS volume is the last of several recently published 

 by the Committee of the Palestine Exploration 

 Fund, following quickly on the steps of Conder's " Heth 

 and Moab " and Hull's " Mount Seir," and describes with 

 great accuracy a district lying to the east of the Sea of 

 Galilee not often visited ; or, if visited, only hastily skirted, 

 by travellers on the road from Jerusalem to Damascus. 

 How little is known of its geographical details may be 

 gathered from a comparison of the excellent map which 

 faces the title-page of the book with any of the best 

 maps now published. The district described embraces 

 the eastern part of the Jaulan and the western of the 

 Hauran, and is remarkable for the number and variety 

 of its works of ancient art, dating from the time of the 

 dolmen-builders to those of the Crusaders, and including 

 structures referable to Jewish, Greek, Roman, and Chris- 

 tian times. How this region came to be explored is 

 narrated by Mr. Walter Besant in the preface. It appears 

 that about a year ago a firman was granted by the Porte 

 for the survey of the district lying between Haifa on the 

 Mediterranean and Damascus, with a view to the con- 

 struction of a railway. For the western part of this 

 route, namely, that between Haifa and the Jordan Valley, 

 the maps of the Palestine Exploration Society afforded 

 the necessary details ; but from the Jordan to Damascus 

 the line of country had to be specially surveyed, and this 

 work was intrusted by the concessionnaires to Herr Gott- 

 heb Schumacher. In the course of his work Herr Schu- 

 macher was able to make many scientific observations, as 

 well as maps and drawings of villages, structures, and 

 works of art, which he afterwards embodied in the 

 memoir forming the greater part of the present volume. 

 A ready means of publication was found in the active 

 Society which has done so much in elucidating, and em- 

 bodying in maps and memoirs, the topographical details 

 of Palestine and its borders. 



To the geologist, as well as to the antiquarian, the 

 region of the Jaulan and Hauran is full of interest, and 

 the author has added some details on its geological struc- 

 ture which are very acceptable. The best and most 

 recent observations on this subject are those of Prof. L. 

 Lartet, and contained in his work on the geology of the 

 Dead Sea.^ The country, as is well known, is volcanic, 



' "Voyage d'Exploration a la Mer Morte," par M. le Due de Luynes ; 

 tome 3me, " Ge'ologie" (Paris). 



and is largely covered by sheets of basalt, scoriae, and 

 ashes which have been erupted from numerous vents, 

 some of which lie in the district here described. Several 

 of these, such as Tell-ej-Jabiyeh and Tell-ej-Jemir'ah, 

 reach an elevation of considerably over 2000 feet above 

 the Mediterranean, and therefore of nearly 3000 feet 

 above the surface of the Sea of Galilee. The southern 

 margin of the Jaulan region, as well as of the basaltic 

 formation, is marked by the deep gorge of the Yarmuk 

 (Hieromax of Pliny), to the south of which the soft 

 Ci etaceo-Ntimmiilitic limestones reach the surface and 

 afford a genial soil to forests of oak. The Yarmuk 

 receives several tributaries from the north, now correctly 

 mapped for the first time, which lay open on their banks 

 fine sections both of the volcanic rocks and of the under- 

 lying chalky limestones ; and these streams, which are 

 large and swift, are often precipitated over cliffs of 

 basalt, forming fine cascades. One of these in the Wady 

 Seisiin, a tributary of the Rukkad, has a fall of 100 feet, 

 and then, pursuing its course by a succession of cataracts, 

 unites with the larger stream after falling 517 feet in 420 

 yards. The Rukkad rises at the foot of Mount Hermon 

 Jebel-esh-Sheikh), a little above the village of 'Ain-el- 

 Berbab, and, upon the melting of the snows in early 

 summer, sends a large flood of water into the Yarmuk, It 

 is remarkable, however, that none of these streams 

 depend altogether on surface drainage for their permanent 

 supplies, as they have their sources in springs ; and 

 the combined volume of these waters goes to form a 

 river of equal volume with that of the Jordan itself 

 where it leaves the Lake of Galilee. There are clear 

 indications of the existence of large underground reser- 

 voirs of water in the basaltic and calcareous formations. 

 The winter snows and " the former and latter rains " of 

 autumn and spring rapidly sink into the fissured and 

 broken str?.ta, and are pent up, either in the mass of the 

 rock itself, or in caverns which have been formed in the 

 limestone by the solvent action of percolating water. 

 These waters probably accumulate under the tracts 

 sloping towards the south from the base of Hermon to 

 the north of the Yarmuk Valley, and when a vent is 

 formed rise to the surface with force. One of these 

 springs, that of Ras-el-'Ain at the village of El Mezeirih, 

 fills a considerable basin, and is two to three yards across 

 and about two feet deep at its source ; others are of 

 nearly equal copiousness and more or less thermal. 



The physical phenomena connected with the district 

 described by Herr Schumacher have their counterpart in 

 the volcanic district of Central France, with this excep- 

 tion, that there do not appear to be any examples of the 

 highly silicated class of lavas, such as domite, trachyte, 

 &c., which we generally find associated with the basic 

 varieties. As regards the geological age of the volcanic 

 outbursts, the question is brought within narrow limits by 

 their relations to the Crctaceo-Eocene limestones. Both 

 these formations appear to have been not only deposited, 

 but subsequently upraised and largely denuded, before the 

 volcanic lavas issued forth from their subterranean reser- 

 voirs. As this movement and denudation of the strata 

 took place in the Miocene epoch, the volcanic eruptions 

 may be referred, with little uncertainty, in the main to 

 the succeeding Pliocene ; an epoch remarkable for out- 

 breaks of vulcanicity over large portions of the globe. At 



