Nov. 4, 1 886] 



NA TURE 



illustrations reproduced from photographs.' Notwith- 

 standing the obseri-ations of Russegger, Fraas, and others, 

 on the phjsical features and structure of this region, a 

 complete monograph on its geology has long been a 

 desideratum, and the work of Dr. C. Diener forms a 

 fitting continuation of the survey of Lartet in Palestine, 

 and of the Palestine Exploration Society in Arabia 

 Petnca and the Jordan X'alley. 



Down to a comparatively recent period, the ranges of 

 the Lebanon and Anti-Lebanon were supposed to be 

 formed of Jurassic limestones, but the observations of 

 Oscar Fraas showed that this was an error, and that they 

 are mainly formed of Cretaceous and Eocene limestones. 

 It is only within the limits of a narrow belt at the western 

 base of Mount Hermon that Jurassic beds really occur ; 

 this being their first appearance on proceeding north- 

 wards from Arabia Petr;va. The formations overlying 

 the Jurassic strata are referable to the " Neocomian" (?), 

 Cenomanian, Turonian, Senonian, Eocene, arid newer 

 Tertiary periods ; while great sheets of basaltic lava of 

 late Tertiary age occur both to tha north and to the south 

 of the region embraced by the memoir. 



Dr. Diener has worked out with great success the 

 nu nerous lines of faulting and flexuring which the strata 

 have undergone since their deposition, and which have 

 bsen produced mainly during the Miocene epoch. Mount 

 Hermon itself owes its position in a great degree to the 

 elevation of its mass along the line of a great fault which 

 coincides with its western base. Its beds of limestone, 

 belonging to the age of the Lower Chalk of Europe, are 

 disposed in the form of a low arch, the axis of which 

 passes under the summit, and ranges in a north-north- 

 east direction along the line of the heights of Anti- 

 Lebanon, Oiher faults range along the southern and 

 eastern flanks of the great dome-shaped mount which 

 has thus been bodily upheaved in respect of the border- 

 ing strata. There can be no question that the system 

 of terrestrial disturbances along which the Syrian moun- 

 tains have been fractured and dislocated is the same as 

 that which has given origin to thj Jordan- Arabah depres- 

 sion ; and amongst the lines of displacement traced out 

 by Dr. Diener, we can have no difficulty in recognising 

 that which is the actual prolongation of the leading fault 

 of the Jordan \'alley. This great line of fracture and dis- 

 placement appears to enter the valley of the Leontes 

 (Litanyj at the western base of Hermon, where a complete 

 change of the stratification takes place on either side, and 

 the "Lebanon Limestone," with the subordinate Lower 

 Cretaceous beds, are thrown into a nearly \ertical posi- 

 tion, and brought into contact with horizontal strata of 

 the Upper Chalk (Senonkreide). It may therefore be 

 inferred that the great valley of Cccle-Syria (El Beka'a), 

 separating the range of the Lebanon from that of Anti- 

 Lebanon, owes its origin, in the first instance, to the same 

 system of faults which has caused the depression of the 

 Jordan \'aUey, the original features hiving been modified 

 by extensive denudation ; and if we suppose that the 

 primary line of fault reaches as fir north as the Lake of 

 Homs, in the valley of the Orontes, and as far south as 

 the Gulf of Akabah, the distance through which this great 

 line of fracture of the earth's crust will have been traced 

 will amount to aliout 350 English miles. 



Dr. Diener expresses some doubts regarding the former 

 existence of glaciers in the Lebanon, notwithstanding the 

 opinions of such observers as Hooker, Fraas, Girard, and 

 others. Hooker especially identifies the mound upon 

 w4iich the grove of ancient ced irs is planted as an ancient 

 moraine. The author throws some doubt upon this view, 

 because he was unable, after three hours of search, to find 

 scratched or striated boulders, although he admits that, 

 viewed in certain directions, the mounds do present the 

 appearance of a terminal moraine. In reference to this 



' *' Libanon ; Grundlinien der phys 

 Mittcl-Sjricn." (Wien, i3S6.) 



ichen Geographic urd Geolog 



subject, it may be observed that the position and altitu.le 

 of the Lebanon Range makes it extremely probable thit 

 perennial snow, giving origin to glaciers, occupied the 

 higher regions during the Glacial epoch. Am ingst the 

 Caucasus, which are only a few degrees further north, 

 though somewhat higher, glaciers occur at the present 

 day, and during the Glacial epoch the valleys were brimful 

 of ice. Hence it would be strange if in the Lebanon it 

 were proved that they had been entirely absent. The 

 scarcity or absence of glacial striations, on which Dr. 

 Diener founds his objection, is easily accounted for 

 when we recollect that the blocks and stones consist 

 of rather friable limestone which has been exposed 

 through thousands of years to the effects of frost, heat, 

 and rain. It is only when the surface of a rock, or of a 

 boulder, has been protected by a coat of stift' glacial clay, 

 that we can expect the striae and scars to be preserved 

 throughout a long period of time. 



On another point Dr. Diener expresses his dissent 

 from the views of previous observers, arising, as it seems 

 to the writer, from his want of appreciation of the full 

 effect of eroding agencies. The neck of land which con- 

 nects the R.is Beyrut with the outer ridges of the Lebanon 

 is formed of beds of stratified gravel or conglomerate 

 rising from 120 to 150 feet above the sea. This is to all 

 appearance an old sea-bed formed at a time when the 

 land was submerged to the extent above indicated, during 

 which Ras Beyrut was an island. The author cannot 

 accept this view, because his observations of the coast- 

 line of Syria, bearing on the present state of the harbours, 

 do not appear to show a change of level of more than a 

 few feet ; less, in fact, than would be necessary to sub- 

 merge the neck of land. On the other hand, he accepts 

 the evidence offered by Lartet and the writer of a 

 submergence of the coast of Southern Palestine and 

 Ph listia to an extent even greater than this, namely 

 200 feet and upwards ; and he points to the evidence of 

 great changes of level on the coast of Northern Syria 

 and Asia Minor. May not the absence of raised 

 beaches on the coast of Southern and Middle Syria 

 be due to the waste caused by the wave action of the 

 Mediterranean, which would tend to carry away such 

 soft materials during the period of emergence where 

 exposed and unprotected? In another case the author 

 throws doubt on the observations of Dr. Post regarding 

 the presence of shell-beds at levels of 150 to 250 feet near 

 Ladikieh, an account of which appeared in Nature, 

 vol. XXX. p. 385, and which is given with much detail. 

 It seems an instance of hypercriticism to call in question 

 an authenticated statement merely on the ground that 

 the author was unable to personally verify it. 



The above instances will, however, go to show with 

 what care and labour Dr. Diener has accomplished his 

 task, and he is to be congratulated upon the -production 

 of a work which will doubtless b: considered a standard 

 of reference regarding the physical history of the Syrian 

 mountains. I may perhaps be allowed to rem irk that his 

 admirable geological map would have been improved by 

 following the English custom of showing the dip of the 

 strata by means of small arrows, and of distinguishing 

 between' ordinary boundaries of formations and those 

 which are produced by faults and fractures, and the book 

 itself would have been rendered easier for reference by 

 an index. Edward Hull 



A UTUMXAL FLOWERING 



THE "extraordinary gooseberry" season seems to 

 have set in this year with more than usual severity. 

 Country clergymen and amateur gardeners, who would 

 see nothing unusual in the autumnal flowering of a 

 hybrid perpetual rose (which reminds them, perhaps, of 

 their old school-days, when they read of '' bifirique 



