88 Prof. J. Prestwich. On the Evidences of a [Mar. 9, 



been noticed. The author concludes that the submergence of the 

 district (if any) must have been small, but of its extension further 

 eastward he has no means of judging. Monsieur L. Lartet states that 

 stone implements of the Palaeolithic type have been found on the 

 surface near Bethlehem, and in some other places. 



North Africa. — The coast of North Africa presents confirmatory 

 evidence. It is fringed by raised beaches — one in particular, 10 to 

 40 feet above the sea- level, is very constant. Ossiferous fissures are 

 met with on the coast at Tetuan, Oran, and other places in Algeria. 

 They present the same characters, and contain the remains of similar 

 animals, as those at Nice and Gibraltar. The fissures do not, how- 

 ever, seem to extend beyond Algeria, for none have been recorded in 

 the province of Constantine, though there is a breccia which is 

 suggestive of a Rubble-drift. 



Eastward of Tunis, the country has been described as consisting of 

 lolling hills of cretaceous rocks in a sea of Quaternary drift, which 

 from the account of it closely resembles a rubble-drift, but osseous 

 breccias and fissures seem absent. It would appear, therefore, that, 

 as on the north shores of the Mediterranean, there was a decrease in 

 the depth of submergence as we proceed from west to east. 



Egypt. — It may in fact be a question whether the submergence 

 extended in this direction beyond the Libyan Desert. The escarped 

 limestone hills and long lines of quarries in Egypt show no ossiferous 

 fissures, nor does there seem to be any Rubble-drift overlying the 

 fluviatile terraces of the Nile, or underlying the river alluvium. 

 Nevertheless there is reason to believe that Palaeolithic Man did exist 

 there, for flint implements of the same type as those of the Thames 

 and Somme Yalleys have been found, but they were all on the surface, 

 and none are from any deposit of well-ascertained Quaternary age. 

 It may further be noticed that several of the animals which dis- 

 appeared with the rubble-drift in the more western districts, such as 

 Lion, Panther, Spotted Hyaena, Hippopotamus, African Elephant, 

 Caffir Cat, survived in the Nile Yalley to historic times. 



In conclusion, the author deals with certain objections which he 

 foresees may be raised to the proposed hypothesis, especially that 

 respecting the absence of marine remains on the submerged lands. 

 This, however, he attributes to the short duration of the submerg- 

 ence, which neither allowed time for ordinary marine sedimentation, 

 nor for the migration and establishment of a marine fauna on the sub- 

 merged area, and also to the turbid condition of the waters. To the 

 objections based on uniformitarian grounds to the rate of upheaval, 

 he does not attach so much weight, as it seems to him that uniform- 

 ity of energy in dealing with a body like the globe cannot be 

 admitted. The question should be judged by the evidence of facts 

 and not decided by an uncertain postulate. 



