PREHISTORIC MAN IN EGYPT AND SYRIA.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume V, Issue 1295, 2 July 1884, Page 2

PREHISTORIC MAN IN EGYPT AND SYRIA.

A gala meeting was held by the Victoria Philosophical Institute of London in the second week in May, at which its members gave a worthy welcome to ViceChancellor Dawson, C.M. G., of McGill University, Montreal, at whose instance the British Association visits Canada this year. The Society of Arts kindly lent its premises for the oceasion, and its great theatre was crowded in every part long before the hour of meeting. The chair was taken by Sir H. Barkly, G.0.M.G., KC. 8., F.R.S., who —after the new members had been annoqnced by Captain F. Petrie, the secretary—welcomed Dr Dawson amid loud applause, and asked him to deliver his address. It was on “Prehistoric Man in Egypt and Syria,” and was illustrated by large diagrams, also flint implements and bones collected by Dr Dawson himself on the spot during his winter tour in the East. Professor Boyd-Dawkins, F.R.S., kindly assisted in the classification of the bones. In dealing with his subject, Dr Dawson remarked that great interest attaches to any remains which, in countries historically so old, may indicate th® residence of man before the dawn of history. In Egypt, nodules of flint are very abundant in the Eocene limestones, and where these have been wasted away, remain on the surface. In many places there is good evidence that the flint thus to be found everywhere has been, and still is, used for the manufacture of flakes, knives and other implements. These, as is well known, were used for many purposes by the ancient Egyptians, and in modern times gun-flints and strike-lights still continue to be made. The debris of worked flints found on the surface is thus of little value, as an indication of any flint-folk' preceding the old Egyptians. It would be otherwise if flint implements could be Jound in the older gravels of the country. ”Some of these are of Pleistocene age, and belong to a period of partial submergence of the Nile Valley Flint implements had been alleged to be found in these gravels, but there seemed to be no good evidence to prove that they are other than the chips broken by mechanical violence in the removal of the gravel by torrential action. In the Lebanon, numerous caverns exists. These were divided into tfro classes, with reference to their origin ; some being water-caves or tunnels of subterranean rivers, others sea-caves, excavated by the waves when the country was at a lower level than at present. Both kinds have been occupied by man, and some of them undoubtedly at a time anterior to the Phoenician occupation of the country, and even at a time when the animal inhabitants and geographical features of the region were different from those of the present day. They wete thus of various ages, ranging from the poat-Glacial or An ediliiviiu period to the time of the Phoenician occupation. Dr Dawson then remarked that many geologists in these days had an aversion to using the word “ Antediluvian,” on account of the nature of the work which, in years now gone by, unlearned people had attributed to the Flood described in Scripture, bub as the aversion to the use of that word was, he thought, not called for in these days, he hoped it would pass away. Speaking as a geologist, from a purely geological point jf view, and from a thorough examination of the country around, there was no doubt but what there was conclusive evidence that between the time of the first occupation of these caves by men—and they tfere men of a splendid physiqua - and the appearance of the early Phoenician inhabitants of the land, there had been a vast su emergence of land, and a great catastrophe, aye a stupendous one, in which even the Mediterranean had been altered from a small sea to its present size. In illustration of this, the caverns at the Pass of Nahr-el-Keib and at Ant Elias were described in soma detail, and also, in connection with these, the occurrence of flint implements on the surface of modern Sandstones at the Cape or Ras neat Bey rout; these last were probably of much less antiquity than those of the more ancient caverns. A discussion ensued, which was taken part in by a number of distinguished Fellows of the Royal Society,, including Sir H. Barkly, F. R.S., Professors Wiltshire, F. R.S., Warrington Smyth, F. K.S., Kupart Jones, F.R.S.; Colon*! Herschel, F.R. S., the talented son of the lata Sir John Herschel ; Dr Rae, F.R.S., the Arctic explorer; Dr Dawson, F.R.S.; Mr D. Howard, the vice-president of the Chemical Institute, and other geologists. The meeting afterwards adjourned to the Museum, whore refreshments were served. '