PREHISTORIC MAN IN EGYPT AND SYRIA.

Waikato Times, Volume XXII, Issue 1873, 8 July 1884, Page 4

PREHISTORIC MAN IN EGYPT AND SYRIA.

A Gala Meeting was held by the Victoria Philosophical Institute of Loudon 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 occasion, and its great theatre was crowded in every part long before the hour of meeting. The chair w,vs taken by Sir H. Barkly, G.C.M.G., X.C.8., F.RS., who-after the new members had been announced 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 Asyria," and was illustrated by large diagrams, also flint implements and w 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 Ins subject, Dr Dawson remarks that, great interest attaches to any remains which, in countries historically so old, may indicate the residence of man before the dawn of history. In Egypt, nodules of flint are very abundant in the Eocene limestones, and, where these havt b^en wasted away, remain on the surface. In many places theie 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 bo found 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 secme 1 to be no good evidence to prove that they are other than the chips bioken by mechanical violence in the removal of the gravel by torrential action. In the Lebanon, numerous caverns exist. These were divided into two 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 counti y, and even at a time when the animal inhabitants and geographical features of the region were different from those of the present day. They were thus of vai ions ages, ranging from the post-Glacial or Antediluvian period to the time of the Phoenician occupation. Dr Dawson then leir.aiked that many geologibts in these days had an aversion to using the word "Antidiluvian,'* on account of the nature of the work w hioh, in years now gone by, unlearned people had attiibnted to the Flood described in Scripture, but 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 gpological point of view, and fiom a thorough examination of the country around, theie was no doubt but what there was conclusive evidence that between the time ot the first occupation of these caves by men — and they were men of a splendid physifjue— and the appearance of the eaily Phoenician inhabitants of the land, there had been a vast submergence of land, and a, great catastrophe, aye a stupendous one, in which even the Mediterranean had been altered from a small se.i to its present size. In illustration of this, the ca veins at the Pass of Naha-el-Kelb and at Ant Elias wcie olesciibed in some detail, and also, in connection with these, the occurrence of flint implements on the surface of modem sandstones at the Cape or Ras near Beyrout ; these last "were probably of much less antiquity than those of the moie ancient caverns. A discussion ensued, which was taken pait in by n number of distinguished Fellows of the Royal Society, including Sn H. Barkly, F.R.S., Piofessor Wilslme, F.R. S., Warrington Smjth, F.R,.5., Kupeit Jones, F.R.S. ; Colonel Heischel, F.R.S., the talented son of the late Sir John Heischel , Drßae, F.RS., the Arctic., explorer ; Dr. Dawson, F.R.S. ; Mr. D. Howaid, the vice picsident of the f hemical Institute, and other geologists. The meeting afterwards adjourned to the Museum. where (refreshments were served.

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