278 EEroRT— 1884. 



human habitation. The author's views generally coincide with those of 

 Theobald Fisher, as extended by him to a much wider area. 1 



' 10. The author considers that there are reasons for concluding that 

 the outburst of volcanic phenomena in North-eastern Palestine in the 

 region of the Jaulan and Hauran, &c, has an indirect connection with 

 the formation of the great Jordan Lake of the Pluvial period. The 

 presence of water in considerable volume is now recognised as necessary 

 to volcanic activity, and the author submits that this interdependence was 

 brought about when the waters of the lake stretched as far north as the 

 little Lake of Huleh. These waters, under a pressure of several hundred 

 feet, would tied their way into the interior of the earth's crust along the 

 lines of the great Jordan Vallev fault and of its branches, and thus 

 supply the necessary " steam-power " for volcanic action. The period 

 when the volcanoes of the Jaulan and Hauran were in action appears tc- 

 have ranged from the Pliocene through the post- Pliocene to the beginning 

 of the recent ; when, concurrent with the falling away and partial drying 

 up of the waters of the great lake, the volcanic fires became extinct, and 

 the great sheets of basaltic lava ceased to flow. 



' If these views are correct, it would seem that daring the Glacial 

 epoch Palestine and Southern Syria presented an aspect very different 

 from the present. The Lebanon throughout the year was snow-clad over 

 its higher elevations, while glaciers descended into some of its valleys. 

 The region of the Hauran, tying at its southern base, was the site of 

 several extensive volcanoes, while the district around, and the Jordan 

 Valley itself, was invaded by floods of lava. A great inland sea, occupying 

 the Jordan Valley, together with the existing comparatively restricted 

 sheets of water, stretched from Lake Huleh on the north to a southern 

 margin near the base of Sami'at Fiddan in the Wady el Arabah of the 

 present day, while numerous arms and bays stretched into the glens and 

 valleys of Palestine and Moab ou either hand. Under such climatic con- 

 ditions, we may feel assured, a luxuriant vegetation decked with verdure 

 the hills and vales to an extent far beyond that of the present, and 

 amongst the trees, as Sir J. D. Hooker has shown, the cedar may have 

 spread far and wide. 



' 11. The author has not thought it necessary to go into the question 

 of the origin of the salinity of the Salt Sea, as this question is now fully 

 understood. He is obliged to differ from Dr. Lartet in his view of the 

 origin of the salt mountain, Jebel Usdum, 2 which he (the author) regards 

 as a portion of the bed of the Salt Sea when it stood about 600 feet above 

 its present level. This level exactly corresponds to that of the tei'races, 

 both along the south and east of the Ghor, formed of lacustrine materials. 

 The upper surface of Jebel Usdum was examined by Messrs. Hart and 

 Laurence, of our party, but previous explorers have considered the sides 

 inaccessible. 



' 12. The author concurs with previous writers in considering that the 

 Cretaceous and Tertiary periods succeeded each other over this region (at 

 least as far as the marine deposits are concerned) without any important 

 physical disturbances ; in consequence of which the limestone formations 

 of these periods are in physical conformity and are generally incapable of 



1 Stvdien iiber das Klima der Mediterrischcn Lander, reterman's Mittheilungcn, 

 1870. 



- Lartet regards the strata of this mountain as belonging to the Numraulitic 

 period. 



