188 bulletin: museum of comparative zoology. 



of varying coarseness which, in his opinion as well as my own, is a late for- 

 mation. They generally occur as breakers (ecueils) along sandy coasts always 

 below high tide and without any connection with the limestone of the coast. 

 My specimens were collected in a small sandy bay between Beirout and 

 Antours, near a caf^ called Donkhane el Doubbait. The conglomerates there 

 are in small irregular beds, always horizontal, washed by the sea, in the midst 

 of sands exactly like the rocks. This deposit gradually obstructs the ports of 

 the coast, and though there are no corals or madrepores on this coast, it forms 

 some small ports similar to those found among the coral banks and islands of 

 the South Sea ; such are those at Sour (Tyre) and at Jaffa. When they come 

 from the water they are not very solid, but they become very hard when ex- 

 posed to the air, so that a great many houses along the coast are built of it. 

 As at Saide, Sour (Tyre), Jaffa el Arich, etc., on the coast of Djibail, I have 

 seen some yellowish varieties that looked to me quite similar to the conglom- 

 erates that I have seen at Palermo and at Messina, and which are generally 

 known to be still in process of formation. I have not found any containing 

 whole shells, and this is in keeping with their variety on these shores, but one 

 of the specimens has fragments still quite fresh. Among the grains some are 

 siliceous, others calcareous. The cement that unites them seems to be of the 

 latter kind. In size, they vary from that of an apple to that of the finest sand. 

 In considering the position and nature of these conglomerates, and in comparing 

 them with what I have seen elsewhere, I am convinced of their recent for- 

 mation. At the same time I am led to believe that it is alternative, that is to 

 say, that it does not occur constantly, for they are generally arranged in beds 

 and these are of different hardnesses like those of the trunk of a tree." 



Still later Lartet ^ mentions these Palestine reefs : — 



" On this coast of Phonicia and parallel with the shore are lines of rocks 

 forming breakwaters in some places and in others very dangerous rocks. It is 

 doubtless on account of an upward movement that these hardened sand banks 

 rise to and appear above the water. 



" In going ashore at Jaffa we were obliged to go through a dangerous passage 

 in the breakers that rise a little above the sea. . . . 



*' These sandstones of recent date form beds that follow the coast regularly 

 at a certain distance from the shore and generally rise just to the surface of the 

 ■water. ... The calcareous sandstones usually make along the sandy shores 

 (lines of) rocks below high- water mark that are composed of the same materials 

 as the beach sand and sometimes contain some horizontal and irregular beds of 

 conglomerate. 



" According to Botta, these deposits gradually obstruct the ports of the coast, 

 and though there are no corals or madrepores there, they form small ports like 

 those among the coral banks and islands of the South Sea. As soon as they 



1 L. Lartet. Exploration ge'ologique de la Mer Morte de la Palestine, p. 199. 

 Paris, 1887. 



