462 Journ. of the Asiat. Soc. of Bengal. [Nov. & Dec., 1915. 
doubt that his views are substantially correct. These views 
may be summarized as follows :— 
In Pliocene times the present valley of the Jordan was 
filled with water, which in the neighbourhood of the existing 
Lake of Tiberias must have reached a level at least 600 feet 
above the present one. A lake of great depth and covering 
a considerable area was thus formed. It is called by Suess the 
‘Jordan Lake.’’ From the south end of this lake a river 
named by Gregory the ‘‘ Erythaean River’’ flowed across the 
isthmus that now joins Sinai to the mainland of Asia, and 
down the valley of the Red Sea, which was then dry land, 
to reach the Indian Ocean somewhere in the neighbourhood 
of Aden. The Nile had no connection with the Erythraean 
River, but an important tributary joined it from the region of 
the great lakes of Central Africa. (At this period the eastern 
shore of the Mediterranean extended across from what is now 
the Egyptian coast to the prominent part of Asia Minor, 
including the present island of Cyprus, and a river probably 
flowed down from the tract of country now submerged through » 
the Gap of Esdraelon into the Jordan Lake). 
Owing to earth-movements and climatic changes that took 
Place at a slightly later period, and in particular to the 
inkag he Lebanon glaciers and to the raising of the 
ridge called El-Saté to the south of the Dead Sea, the Jordan 
its three comparatively small basins, the waters of Merom 
(Lake Huleh), the Sea of Galilee (the Lake of Tiberias) and the 
Dead Sea. 
There is no real evidence, either geological or zoological, 
that any part of the existing system was ever connected 
han with the Mediterranean. 
remained fresh or practically fresh throughout the course of its 
ge and that the Dead Sea and to a less extent the 
ake o iberi 
never have been excessive since the lake shrank to its 
present dimensions, may very easily have been temporarily 
