44 Reports and Proceedings— 
Igy dtm ean) Se INgIS) AS IYO)| Osa DAly Eels. 
GEOLOGIOAL Socrery or Lonpon. 
J.—November 28rd, 1892.—W. H. Hudleston, Esq., M.A., F.R.S., 
President, in the Chair.—The following communications were read : 
1. “Outline of the Geological Features of Arabia Petreea and 
Palestine.” By Prof. Edward Hull, LL.D., F.R.S., F.G.8. 
The region may be considered as physically divisible into five 
sections, viz.:—(1) The mountainous part of the Sinaitic Peninsula ; 
(ii) the table-land of Badiet-el-Tih and Central Palestine; (ii) the 
Jordan-Arabah valley; (iv) the table-land of Edom, Moab, and the 
volcanic district of Jaulén and Haur&in; and (v) the maritime plain 
bordering the Mediterranean. 
The most ancient rocks (of Archean age) are found in the southern 
portion of the region; they consist of gneissose and schistose masses 
penetrated by numerous intrusive igneous rocks. They are succeeded 
by the Lower Carboniferous beds of the Sinaitic peninsula and 
Moabite table-land, consisting of bluish limestone with fossils, which 
have their counterparts chiefly in the Carboniferous Limestone of 
Belgium, and of a purple and reddish sandstone (called by the 
author “the Desert Sandstone,” to distinguish it from the Nubian 
Sandstone of Cretaceous age), lying below the limestone. The 
Nubian Sandstone, separated from the Carboniferous by an enormous 
hiatus in the succession of the formations, is probably of Neocomian 
or Cenomanian age, and is succeeded by white and grey marls, and 
limestones with flint, with fossils of Turonian and Senonian ages. 
The Middle EHocene (Nummulitic Limestone) beds appear to follow 
on those of Cretaceous age without a discordance; but there is a real 
hiatus notwithstanding the apparent conformity, as shown by the 
complete change of fauna. In Philistia a calcareous sandstone in 
which no fossils have been observed is referred to the Upper Hocene ; 
for the Miocene period was a continental one, when faulting and 
flexuring was taking place, and the main physical features were 
developed—e.g., the formation of the Jordan-Arabah depression is 
‘referable to this period. 
In Pliocene times a general depression of Jand took place to about 
200-800 feet below the present sea-level, and littoral deposits were 
formed on the coasts and in the valleys. To this period belong the 
higher terraces of the Jordan-Arabah valley. The Pliocene deposits 
consist of shelly gravels. Later terraces were formed at the epoch 
of the glaciation of the Lebanon Mountains, when the rainfall was 
excessive in Palestine and Arabia. 
The volcanoes of the Jaulin, Hauran, and Arabian Desert are 
considered to have been in active operation during the Miocene, 
Pliocene, and Pluvial periods; but the date of their final extinction 
has not been satisfactorily determined. 
2. “The Base of the Keuper Formation in Devon.” By the Rev. 
A. Irving, B.A., D.Sc., F.G.S. 
In a paper published in the February number of the volume of 
the Quarterly Journal for the current year, the author definitely 
