Revieivs — Prof. Hull's Survey of Palestine. 229 



or whether they are wholly Cretaceous and belong to the Nubian 

 series. At the Wady Nasb the Carboniferous sandstone is from 150 

 to 250 feet in thickness, and Prof. Hull assigned to it the not very 

 distinctive name of " the Desert Sandstone," whilst for the Cretaceous 

 sandstone, which has an extremely wide development both in Palestine, 

 the Sinaitic Peninsula, Egypt, and the Libyan Desert, the name of 

 the ■'' Nubian " Sandstone is retained. 



Another outcrop of the Carboniferous Limestone is believed to have 

 been met with by the Expedition among the hills of Moab, east of 

 the Ghor, but " for lack of time " the fossils in it were not collected, 

 and Prof. Hull does not therefore feel confidence respecting its age. 



No fresh details of importance were noted respecting the Cretaceo- 

 Nummulitic series of rocks of which the greater part of Palestine 

 and of the country east of the Jordan valley is composed. The 

 series consists of the Nubian Sandstone below, followed by thick 

 beds of limestones with bands of chert. The succession and the 

 character of the rocks very much resembles that described by Zittel 

 in the Libyan Desert, and there is also a similar absence of any 

 clear line of demarcation between the limestones of Cretaceous and 

 those of Eocene age. Fossils appear to be rare throughout the 

 series — the Expedition does not seem to have discovered any in fact. 

 It would be interesting to know whether the numerous bands and 

 masses of flint and chert, which occur equally in the Cretaceous 

 and in the Eocene strata, are, like those of the Upper Chalk of Eng- 

 land, derived from siliceous sponges; but nothing is noted about 

 them beyond that shells of Molluscs and Echinoderms now siliceous 

 are occasionally found in them. 



The author briefly refers to the occurrence of beds of a calcareous 

 sandstone, the presence of which is stated to be the key to the 

 physical features of the western margin of Palestine from Mount 

 Carmel to beyond Gaza. No thickness is assigned to the deposit, 

 its conformability or otherwise to the Eocene limestones below is not 

 mentioned, and the only fossils in it are unrecognizable fragments 

 of shells. 



The author refers the formation provisionally to the Upper Eocene, 

 " chiefly on the grounds : (1) that it is older than the sand and 

 gravel of the 200 feet sea-border, which may be inferred to date back 

 to the Pliocene : (2) that there is no evidence of any Miocene beds 

 in Palestine ; and (3) that the rock has a very solid character and 

 is traversed by joint planes, similar to those of the Cretaceo-Nummu- 

 litic limestone." The rock may indeed belong to the Upper Eocene, 

 but the grounds on which it is so placed are of the weakest character. 

 Thus, because Miocene beds are not known elsewhere in Palestine, is 

 certainly no argument why these beds may not belong to this period, 

 and as for the very solid character of the rock being evidence of its 

 Upper Eocene age, it is stated on the preceding page that this rock 

 " is sometimes rather solid, but generally porous." 



With the great uncertainty respecting the age of this calcareous 

 sandstone, it would seem to be rather premature on the part of the 

 author to devote a chapter to the subject of " Miocene period unre- 

 presented in Palestine and Border," in which it is stated that in 



