TRANSACTIONS OF THE SECTIONS. 181 



E'Delr, south of Busrah, about 32° .'50' to nearly the supposed centre of the Lake 

 IHjdneh in the territory of Damascus, in 33° 20' North. Lat. This he had drawn on 

 a scale eight times larger than that of Mr. Graham's map, which had only been 



imblished a few days, in vol. xxix. of the ' Journal of the Royal Geographical Society.' 

 Te also coloured it, so as to point out the supposed boundaries of the different pro- 

 vinces under consideration, during the Biblical and Roman times, at least as far as 

 could be determined with any accuracy. 



It was further remarked that the most recent maps of Syria do not agree as to the 

 exact positions of Damascus and Busrah ; for, in Mr. Porter's first map, which lie 

 had the pleasure of communicating to the Royal Geographical Society in Nov. 1855, 

 and published in the 2Gth volume of their ' Journal,' Damascus is placed in just about 

 36° 17' 15" E. Long, and in 33° 31' 15" nearly N. Lat., whilst Busrah is laid down in 

 about 36° 26' 35" E. Long, and in 32° 32' 20" N. Lat. ; whereas in the map by Henry 

 Kiepert, engraven in Mr. Porter's ' Handbook of Syria,' published last year, the city 

 of Damascus is laid down in 36° 16' 10" E. Long, and in 33° 31' 40" N. Lat.; but 

 Busrah is placed in 3G° 22' 30" E. Long, and in N. Lat. 32° 31' 40", thus giving a 

 difference nearly as to Damascus of 35" of Long, and 25" of Lat. ; and about a differ- 

 ence as to Busrah of 4' 5" of Long., and of 40" of Lat. 



The author then described the principal geographical features of the several regions 

 represented in his large coloured map, adding, with some minuteness, accounts of 

 their geology, as derived from the careful details chiefly afforded by Burckhardt, Porter, 

 and Graham. 



The geology of this entire region affords an example of many most important vol- 

 canic phenomena, such as are rarely to be seen within the same extent of country. 

 The remains of distinct craters are apparent; whilst the whole region is more or less 

 covered with igneous rocks, such as black trap, or basalt, either in the form of large 

 boulders or outcroppings, and projecting masses. On some of the many conical hills, 

 or Tells as they are termed in Arabic, larva and scoriae, and pumice of various colours, 

 are visible. 



The author especially dwelt on the two more wonderful and extremely similar vol- 

 canic portions of that country, which may be termed fields, or islands, of black basalt, 

 or of sterile igneous dark-coloured rock, namely, El Lejah and E'Safah. The former 

 answers to the Trachonitis of the Romans, signifying a 'stony' district, and to Argob 

 of Scripture; but the ancient appellation of the latter remains to this day unknown. 



E'Safah, according to Mr. Graham, is even more horrible than the Lejah, for there, 

 in many spots, good soil occurs. 



Both districts are often intersected with caverns, and cracks, or fissures, of great 

 depth and width ; and the same traveller considers them to be " two of the most 

 remarkable instances of a volcanic formation perhaps in existence." 



So Mr. Porter, in like manner, describes the large fissures in the basalt in the Lejah, 

 and writes, that its " physical features present the most singular phenomena he had 

 ever witnessed, and to which there is not, so far as he knows, a parallel in the world, 

 with the c-xception of the Safah." 



The author, having examined some years ago the lava-beds and large volcanic 

 deposits about Vesuvius, in the island of Ischia, and on the east and north sides of 

 Etna, had never seen any chasms and fissures at all parallel to the phenomena, de- 

 scribed as being so conspicuous in those of the Lejah and the Safah ; and he showed 

 that the nearest parallels are evidently several large lava-fields, and volcanic tracts, in 

 Iceland, an island entirely of igneous origin, and more particularly so are the enor- 

 mous clefts or fissures, termed in Icelandic, gias. In proof of this view, he described 

 the two best known, and most extended, and deepest fissures, the Hrafna-gia, or 

 'Raven chasm,' and All-mannagia, or ' All-men's-chasm,' in the vicinity of Thing- 

 valla. 



Notice of the Karaite Jews. By J. Hogg, J6T.il., F.R.S., F.L.S., F.R.G.S. 

 Sfc, Honorary Foreign Secretary of the Royal Society of Literature. 



The author brought this notice before ethnologists respecting the very ancient sect 

 of Jews who call themselves Karaims or Kara'crs, the chief number of whom have 

 for centuries inhabited, as they still do, several towns in the Crimea, in the hope 



