ON THE FAUNA AND FLOKA OF LEBANON 

 AND LOWER SYRIA, 



IN CONNECTION WITH THEIR CLIMATAL CONDITtONS. 



By Edward Atkinson, F.L.S,, F.Z.S. 

 Honorary Curator in Zoology to the Leeds Philosophical dnd Literary Society. 



(Eead before the Leeds Naturalists' Association, October 24, 1876. ) 

 PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY OP THE COUNTRY. 



The two parallel ranges of Lebanon and Anti-Lebanon may be 

 said roughly to divide the land longitudinally into plains and highlands. 



The first, rising at the angle of the Mediterranean, near the roots 

 of the Taurus range, runs nearly north and south along its eastern 

 shore in an almost unbroken chain through nearly three degrees of 

 latitude, receding at some points to form broad maritime plains, and 

 sending out spurs at two or three points which stretch seawards, and 

 form rocky headlands. 



The part ot this range which lies in North Syria and extends to 

 the confines of Palestine, is generically called Lebanon, its highest 

 peaks being Dhor el Khodib (10,050) capped with all but perpetual 

 snow, and only about 1000 feet above the famed cedar grove ; and 

 Jebel Sunnin (8500) thirty miles further south. Shortly after 

 attaining these heights the Lebanon melts away, expanding in 

 breadth as it diminishes in height, and forming by its many spurs the 

 rugged hill-country of North Galilee, cleft by the deep fissure of the 

 river Leontes (Litany), which sweeps suddenly westward and enters 

 the sea to the north of Tyre. Henceforward the mountain masses 

 which form the backbone of Palestine proper can scarcely be called a 

 range, for their spurs branching in various directions, and interrupted 

 by occasional transverse valleys and plains (notably the great plain 

 of Esdraelon and valley of Shechem) break its continuity. Still they 

 start up again aud constitute the highlands of Samaria and Judea, 

 and the watershed between the Mediterranean and the Jordan valley. 



This hill- country reaches, in its higher elevation, an average height 

 of 2500 above the sea level (Mount Ebal 2700, Gerizim 2650, 

 Jerusalem 2610, Mount Olivet 2724, Bethlehem 2704, Hebron 

 3029 feet). 



N. S., Vol. ii.,, June, 1877. 



