Page:Mount Seir, Sinai and Western Palestine.djvu/176

140 seems to me, an explanation of the features of Western Palestine. It is now generally known that the whole of the interior table-land of Judah, and of Ephraim, is formed of exceedingly hard beds of limestone. In the centre of the table-land the strata reach their highest altitude, and are in a nearly horizontal position; but along the western slope they dip westwards, as may be seen in the sections along the Jaffa and Jerusalem road at Bab-el-Wâdy, east of Ramleh. At the western margin of the table-land, which, commencing at Tel es Sherlah on the south, ranges northwards by 'Arak el Menshiyet, Kezâzeh, Eamleh, Ludd, Kalkilieh, and El Marâh to the sea at Mount Carmel, the limestone gives place to the yellow sandstone. This latter being of a much softer character, and having been denuded from off the upper surface of the limestone plateau, it has also been deeply worn down along the tract of Philistia, and the Plain of Sharon; in consequence of which, this tract is much depressed, and is at a lower level than that formed of the limestone beds. As regards the geological age of the sandstone formation, my impression is, that it forms an upper member of the Eocene Tertiary series, and that it was accumulated beneath the waters of the sea, mider conditions somewhat different from those which prevailed during the deposition of the Cretaceo-nummulitic limestone.

Another object of interest which attracted our notice in the Wâdy es Sheriah, when camped at Tel Abu Hereirah, was the presence of beds of calcareous sand and gravel, containing numerous shells of varieties now living in the Mediterranean, including species of the genera Pecten, Cardium, Ostrea, Dentalium, Turritella, and species of Echini. The aneroid showed that we were here about 200 feet above the level of the Mediterranean, so that we could not doubt we had again before us a portion of "the 200 feet raised beach," which we had seen along the shores of the Gulf of Suez, and to the north of the Gulf of Akabah. We subsequently noticed this raised sea-bed at intervals all the way to Jaffa, where its presence is marked by a sandy or gravelly terrace, containing numerous sea-shells, amongst which Pectunculus violascens,