﻿Rev. E. R. Lewis — Notes on the Geological Survey of Lebanon. 159 



lY. — Notes on the Geology op the Lebanon. 



By the Rev. E. E. Lewis, M.A., 



Of the Syrian Protestant College, Beirut, Syria. 



I HAVE been fortunate enough to obtain from the eastern slope of 

 Mount Harmon (Jebel esh Shech) a large lot of fossils, which 

 not only determine the geological position of that part of the Lebanon, 

 but also settle the question of the existence of Jurassic formations 

 in Syria. Of course it has been often enough asserted that Jurassic 

 rocks are found here, but the fact has not been considered settled 

 beyond doubt. 



M. Louis Lartet, in his "Geologic de la Palestine," p. 120, says : — 

 " Le Cidaris glandifera et le Collyrites hicordata sont les deux seuls 

 fossiles jurassiques du Liban et de I'Anti-Liban dont I'authenticite 

 soit jusqu'ici etablie." M. Lartet evidently felt that Botta, Eussegger, 

 and others had been hasty, if not inaccurate, in their conclusions. 



Dr. Oscar Fraas, of Stuttgart, in his "Aus dem Orient," p. 40, 

 says that his chief object in visiting Syria was to determine " with 

 what part of the Jura formation we have here to do," and adds, 

 " denn dass in Palastina die Juraformation die Hauptgruppe der 

 Gebirge bilde, war mir nach Allem, was ich an Literatur kannte, 

 eine ausgemachte Sache." 



Dr. Fraas, as a geologist who had been brought up among Jurassic 

 formations, and therefore by M. L. Lartet styled "geologue juras- 

 sien," was without doubt competent to decide the question which 

 he went to decide. He examined the geological formation of 

 Palestine from Jaffa to the Dead Sea, and from Jerusalem to the 

 Mountains of Galilee, and then wrote, " dass weder von alterer 

 Kreide noch von Tertiar, geschweige von Juraformation oder sonst 

 einem secundaren Gebirge die Rede ist, glauben wir an der Hand 

 leitender Fossile zur Geniige beweisen zu konnen," p. 72. He also 

 writes, p. 71, that the formation which makes up the Lebanon is the 

 same as that in the south. These late and trustworthy investigations 

 of M. Louis Lartet and Dr. Oscar Fraas certainly left the existence 

 of Jurassic formations a matter to be yet decided. 



In the summer of 1873 I first found, on the eastern slope of Mount 

 Hermon (at a place a little north of where M. Louis Lartet found 

 specimens of Collyrites hicordata), a lot of fossils which differed 

 from any I had hitherto found in the Lebanon. Dr. Fraas had 

 never reached this place, I believe. Again, in 1874, I visited this 

 place, and collected a large and exceedingly valuable set of fossils 

 which I submitted to Dr. Fraas for determination. The following is 

 the answer returned by him : — 



Rhynchonella lacunosa, Buch. 

 Terebrattila bisujfarcinata, Ziet. 

 Ammonites transversarius, Quenst. 



dentatus, Eein. 



convolutus, Schloth. 



Jlexicostatus, Phillips. 



Ammonites hecticus, Quenst. 



perarmatus, Sow., d'Orb. 



Nucula variabilis, Sow. 



ornata, Quenst. 



lacryma, Morr., Sow. 



Belemnites semihastatus, Blainville. 



Dr. Fraas adds to this list, " Vraiment oxfordien ! tons des fossiles 

 correspondent exactement aux fossiles du meme horizont en Europe." 



