A. S. Woodward— Visit to Continental Museums. 395 
low-water or of complete desiccation: and the same seems to be 
true of the ancient lake of the Dead Sea basin. 
Accompanying the two great expansions of the Quaternary lakes 
of Utah and Nevada, was an increase of perennial snow on the 
neighbouring mountains and the production of glaciers, some of 
which were several miles in length, in the higher portions of the Sierra 
Nevada and Rocky Mountains. It is known from the observations 
of Sir Joseph Hooker, that glacial moraines occur about the base of 
Mount Lebanon ; and it seems fair to infer that glaciers of consider- 
able magnitude existed on the higher mountains of Asia Minor 
during the time that the Jordan-Arabah depression held a great 
freshwater sea. 
At present the regions we are comparing are each arid and but 
thinly clothed with vegetation. Agriculture in each instance is 
largely dependent upon irrigation. The mountains in each country 
are remarkable for their brilliant colours, for the ruggedness of their 
sides, and for their angular outlines; in each case they are sur- 
rounded by an atmosphere of great transparency, which renders 
distances deceptive to those familiar with more humid regions. The 
desiccated lake basin known as “ playas” in the Far West are 
represented by similar mud plains in Palestine and adjacent regions, 
which are dry and hard in summer and shallow lakes in winter. 
The dry water-courses known as arroyas in the West have their 
counterpart in the wadys of the Hast. About the bases of the steep 
escarpments bordering the Jordan-Arabah depression and in other 
similar localities, there are alluvial cones formed of debris swept out 
of tributary gorges and deposited as half-cones sometimes several 
hundred feet high, against the sides of the valleys. Similar alluvial 
cones of great magnitude occur again and again about the bases of 
the abrupt mountains of Utah, Nevada, Arizona, and neighbouring 
regions. The reader who has traversed the desert valleys of the 
Far West will no doubt be interested to learn that the familiar 
Artemisia thrives also in the Holy Land. 
Many other similarities might be pointed out between the lands 
under comparison, especially with reference to those features which 
attract the artist’s eye. It is to be remarked in this connection, 
however, that while the Far East has furnished inspiration for 
hundreds of painters, the Far West, with equal wealth of colour, 
fully as picturesque inhabitants, and far more magnificent mountain 
forms, still remains almost an undiscovered country. 
III.—VerresratE PatmonroLoGy In some ContrnentaL Museums. 
By A. Smrrx Woopwarp, F.G.S., F Z.S.; 
of the British Museum (Natural History). 
AVING lately had the privilege of visiting several of the 
Continental Museums containing collections especially of 
Paleontological importance, some notes will perhaps be acceptable 
upon the present aspect of that branch of the science in which 
the writer is particularly interested. Such a broad survey imparts 
so many new ideas, and leaves so many pleasant memories of 
