(tiiickness unknown) . . . (oy#r)2 0 ,,
The shells in bed No. 3 consist of the penera TurritfUa, Di-ntalium, ArtemU, Pectin, Cardium, Ontrea, and spines of
All along the lower parts of the Maritime Plain extendingfor several miles inland from JalTa, and rising from 200 to 300 ft., shelly sands and beds of gravel may bo observed ; and again inland from iJeirflt this ancient sea-bed may bo observed at intervals, varying in character and composition, as at Ramleli, l.ydila (Ludd) and Lokandel el-Motram in the valley between BeirQt and the western spurs of the Lebanon, where it consists of conglomerate of
*'Oeol. Arab, rctraaa, etc.,' p. 74. A fl(fur« ahowintr tho relations of thia raised beach to the calcareous sandstone is •hown, ib. p. 0^
water- worn pebbles of limestone, and may be refer- able to the later Pliocene age. The more recent sea-beaches, formed during the rising of the beds in the Pleistocene age, occupy lower levels, and are characterized by jlediterranean forms, such as Pei:tunculus violascens. Purpura hemastonut, and Murex brandaris, etc.
The submergence of the Palestine and adjoin- ing areas, after the present laud-surface had been determined, and subsequent re-elevation to exist- ing levels, is therefore clearly determined by the above instances of old sea-margins. Meanwhile, in the region of the Jordan-Arabah depression, correspomling changes had been going on, result- ing in the formation of terraces at various levels from that of the outer sea to the present margins of the inland lakes, but in time extending into the Pleistocene (or Pluvial) period ; with some account of which, as far as it concerns the Palestine area, our review of the geological history of this region proijcrly ends.
(_;') Pluvial to Recent. — The general refrigera- tion of the climate in the uorlliern hemisphere referable to the Glacial epoch, which was accom- panied in the temperate zone by accunndations of snow and the advance of glacial ice, did not leave Palestine altogether unallected ; on the contrary, it has left indelible traces on its pliysical features. We know through the observations of several travellers, commencing with Sir J. D. Hooker, that there are old glacier moraines in the Lebanon at a level of 4000 ft. above the sea, and that one of the principal groups of old cedars is planted on a large morame.* Itie presence of glaciers in the Lebanon being thus established, we necessarily infer the existence of a climate resembling rather that of the Caucasus and the Alps than that of the present day ; perhaps we may say that the mean annual temperature, which is now about 70° Fahr., was at this epoch of extreme cold about 55° or 60°, and a correspondingly lower temperature extended over all the countries to the south of the Lebanon. t A further inference may be drawn, namely, that the rainfall all over Palestine, and extending into the Sinaitic peninsula, was considerably larger than at present, and the evaporation less rapid ; and the general result would be that the present rivers and streams would have been lar"er, and valleys which, like those of the Badiet el- Tih, are now destitute of streams, were channels for running water. It may be readily conceived that, when the perennial snows of the Lebanon were melting during the sprui" and summer, the waters of the Jordan were swollen far beyond their present limits, and that the surface of the Dead Sea, now retained at its present low level by the equalization of river supply and evaporation, must have risen to a limit far above that of the present day. We cannot, therefore, feel surprise at the eviiiences of former greater levels of the 'Jordan-Valley lake' nllbrded by the terraces rising hundreds ot feet above the present surface of the Dead Sea, which have been described ; they were the necessary result of greater influx of waters from streams, and of smaller evaporation, due to the humidity of the atmosphere and decreased temperature in the climate as compared with that of the present day. As the glacial conditions of the Plei.stocene ejioch pa-ssed awa}', and those of the present day gradu- ally came into operation by a corresponding process in an opposite direction, the lakes and stream!) would naturally as.suine their present limits, or in some instances actually disappear. E. HULL.
• • On the Ccdara of Lebanon," .Vat. llitt. Ret. ISflS : Hooker'i original obtfervations have been continued by Tristram and Ijirtet.
t Kmaa fluppoaea therv were glacicra amongat the mountain! of Sinai, but the present writer waa unable to recognise any clear evidence in aupport of thii rtew la lt>tiS-84.
156
GEORGIAN VEESION
GER
GEORGIAN YERSION.-See Version.
GEPHYRUN (Tf<t>vpoi>').—A city captured by Juilas Maccabieus, 2 Mac 12". AV, perhaps riglitly B('centuating7e0upoCi'(intin. ofyeipiip6a),tT. ' he went also about to make a bridge to a certain city.' RV has ' lie also fell upon a certain city Gephyrun,' and appends marginal note, 'The relation between the names Gephyrun and Caspin is unknown, and perhaps tlie Greek text is corrupt. Compare Gejihrun, the name of a citv of Gilead mentioned by Polybius, v. Ixx. 12, and Caspar, 1 Mac S*".' Jos. (Ant. XII. viii. 5) gives the name as Ephron. The site is unkno^vn.
GER (na) is a Heb. terra which in AV is generally rendered 'stranger.' The fact that the same tr° is adopted also for other words whose proper equivalent is ' foreigner,' creates needless con- fusion, which might be avoided either by lea\'ing gcr, which is a technical term, untranslated, or by translating it 'protected stranger.' Driver {Dent. p. 12G) suggests that the rendering might uniformly be 'sojourner' (so frequently in RV), which would preserve the connexion in EV with the verb ' sojourn ' (i«) in such passages as Gn 12'" 19* 47\ Is 52*.