Notices of Memoirs — Prof. E. Kull — Fis^hes in Sea of Galilee. 521 



peculiar to the lake and its tributaries ; while of the rest only one — ■ 

 namely, Blennius lupulus — belongs to the ordinary Mediterranean 

 fauna ; two others — namely, Chromis Niloticus and Clarias macra- 

 canthus — are found in the Nile ; seven other species occur in the 

 rivers of South-western Asia ; and ten more are found in other parts 

 of Syria. Tristram considers that this assemblage points to a close 

 affinity of the fauna of the Jordanic basin with that of the rivers of 

 Tropical Africa (Ethiopian) ; but what most strikes the observer is 

 perhaps the speciality of the species to Jordanic waters, sixteen out 

 of a total of thirty-six species being peculiar. This view seems to 

 be borne out also by an analysis of the molluscous forms, which are 

 for the most part also peculiar, for no less than sixteen species of 

 Unio are special to Jordanic waters.^ Assuming that the forms 

 which are common to Jordanic and other waters have been distri- 

 buted in a manner similar to that by which we have to account for 

 the distribution of lacustrine forms in other parts of the world, we 

 have yet to account for the presence of the forms which are special 

 and peculiar. 



This leads to a consideration of the manner in which the Jordanic 

 basin was first formed and afterwards modified ; and without enter- 

 ing here into this wide question, which I have endeavoured to deal 

 with in the memoir above referred to, I may be allowed to summarize 

 my conclusions somewhat as follows : — 



In the first place, it must be recollected that as the whole region 

 on both sides of the Jordanic valley was originally overspread by 

 strata of the Eocene period (known as the Nummulitic Limestone) , 

 this region formed the floor of the ocean down to the close of the 

 Eocene period ; the only possible lands in the district may have been 

 those of the Crystalline rocks of the Sinaitic group of mountains. 



The geological period, which succeeded, that of the Miocene, was 

 that in which land first appeared in the Palestine area. The bed of 

 the sea was locally elevated into dry land, but at the same time most 

 of the leading physical features by which that land is now diversified 

 were traced out and finally determined. Chief amongst these was 

 the line of the great Jordan-Arabah depression — marked out by a 

 line of fault or displacement of the strata, ranging from the slopes 

 of the Lebanon on the north to the Gulf of Akabah on the south. 

 It seems to me probable that as the land on either side of this de- 

 pression was being elevated, the displacement of the strata on either 

 side of the great fault was also proceeding, and the floor of the sea 

 was subsiding along the line of the Jordan valley. An inland lake 

 of considerable extent was thus formed, the waters of which were 

 first derived from those of the ocean itself, in which were enclosed 

 the fishes, molluscs and other forms which inhabited these waters 

 themselves. There are good grounds for believing that once the 

 lake was enclosed and shut ofi" from the outer sea by a barrier of 

 land, it was never again physically connected with the outer sea. 

 The saddle of the Arabah valley, rising some GOO feet above the 

 highest limit to which the waters of the old Jordanic lake ever 



1 Tristram, ibid. p. 178. The molluscs have been also recently described by M. 

 A. Locard, Malacologie du Lac de Tiberiade, 1883. 



