Page:Mount Seir, Sinai and Western Palestine.djvu/219

Rh one time stood about 1,400 feet higher than at present. These beds of marl were first observed at the camp at 'Ain Abu Beweireh; they contain blanched shells of the genera Melanopsis and Melania. The beds of marl were observed to be enclosed by higher ground of more ancient strata in every direction except towards the north, where they gently slope downwards towards the borders of The Ghôr, and become incorporated with strata of the 600 feet terrace.

5. The author concurs with Dr. Lartet in thinking that the waters of the Jordan Valley did not flow down into the Gulf of Akabah after the land had emerged from the sea; the disconnection of the inner and outer waters was very ancient, dating back to Miocene times.

6. The occurrence of beds of ancient lakes—consisting of coarse gravel, sand, and marl, amongst the mountains of Sinai, and in the Wâdy el Arabah, where now only waterless valleys occur, taken in connection with other phenomena, have impressed the author with the conviction that the former climatic conditions of Arabia Petræa were very different from those of the present day. Such terraces have been observed by Dr. Post in the Wâdy Feirân, and Colonel Sir W. Wilson in the Wâdy Solaf, and by the author in the Wâdies Gharandel, Goweisah, Hamr, Solaf, and Es Sheikh or Watiyeh. It would appear that, at a period coming down probably to the prehistoric, a chain of lakes existed amongst the tortuous valleys and hollows of the Sinaitic peninsula. The gypseous deposits of Wâdy Amarah and of 'Ain Hawareh are considered to be old lake beds, and Mr. Bauerman has observed remains of fresh-water shells (Lymnæa truncatula) and a species of Pisidium in "lake or river alluvium" of the Wâdies Feirân and Es Sheikh ("Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc," Vol. XXV, p. 35).

7. The author considers it probable that these ancient Sinaitic lakes belong to an epoch when the waters of the Mediterranean and of the Red Sea rose to a level considerably higher than at present; and when, consequently, there was less fall for the inland waters in an outer direction. The evidence of a submergence, to a depth of at least 200 feet, is abundantly clear in the occurrence of raised beaches or sea beds with shells, corals, and crinoids, of species still living in the adjoining waters. The raised beaches of the Mediterranean and Red Sea coasts have been observed by the officers of the Ordnance Survey, and by Fraas, Lartet, Schweinfurth, Post, and others. They were observed by members of the Expedition at the southern extremity of the Wâdy el Arabah, and shells