BRANNER: THE STONE REEFS OF BRAZIL. 187 
The consolidated beaches of the Levant. — The earliest descriptions of 
the reefs of Asia Minor known to the writer are those given by Francis 
Beaufort." He is quoted here at some length (р. 182-186) : — 
“The shore bounding this plain was once a gravel beach; but from the 
upper part of the slope to some distance into the sea, it is now a solid crust of 
pudding stone, from one to two feet in thickness. This petrified beach is not 
peculiar to the plain of Selinty ; many instances of it on a smaller scale had 
been already observed on the coasts of Asia Minor, and a few on those of 
Greece ; and I have been informed that an example of it occurs also in Sicily. 
Being generally covered with loose sand and pebbles, it presents to the eye no 
extraordinary appearance. . . . The specimens that I have examined, taken 
from various places, differ but little from each other; gravel predominates in 
Some, coarse sand in others, or they lie in alternate layers of each. . . . The 
cement or paste by which they are united is likewise calcareous; and so tena- 
cious that a blow sufficient to break the mass, more frequently fractures even 
the quartz pebbles than dislodges them from the bed. 
“Close to the westward of Side we had found some ledges of rock, partly 
above and partly under water, which appear to have been produced in a similar 
manner : they contain a large proportion of broken tiles, both red and yellow, 
of shells, bits of wood, and of such rubbish as might be expected in the vicinity 
of a town. . . . At Phaselis also we found a patch of petrified beach ; and 
again at a few miles to the eastward of Alaya. . . . It is needless to enu- 
merate here all the places where it may be found on this coast.” 
On page 249 this writer gives a small map of Pompeiopolis in which 
the ancient port is shown to have been filled up with blown sands, and 
these sands have become solidified on the beach within the port. (See 
also р. 260.) 
The last case shows that the hardening of the beach has taken place 
within historic times. 
Beaufort’s description of these beaches refers to the southern coast of 
Asia Minor from the Island of Rhodes eastward. 
Along the coast of Palestine these same phenomena are reported by 
Botta.2 His description of the reefs is given as a postscript to the article 
proper, as follows : — 
“Р. S. Since this memoir was written I Бале gone to see a fact first 
pointed out to me by Dr. Hedenborg. Along the whole coast of Beirout or 
El Arich to Tripoli is found a kind of conglomerate or argillaceous sandstone 
1 Francis Beaufort. Karamania, or a brief description of the south coast of 
Asia Minor, ed. 2. London, 1818. 
2 P. E. Botta Fils. Observations sur le Liban et L’Antiliban. Mém. Soc. Géol. 
de France, Tome I., р. 135-160. Paris, 1833, 
