Pleistocene Mammalian Faunas (North America, Europe). The Pleistocene represents the climax of the Age of Mammals in point of differentiation and richness of mammalian faunas. In Europe the Pleistocene faunas have been the subject of memoirs by Boule, Schoetensack and many others. In North America we have the teeming fauna of the Rancho La Brea, California, de- scribed'by Merriam, Stock and their colleagues of the university of California. The correlation of the American Pleistocene faunas has been treated especially by Osborn and by Hay.
In the preparation of this article the writer is especially indebted for the entire invertebrate section to the cooperation of Miss Mar- jorie O'Connell, who has summarized the chief discoveries in Pre- and Postcambrian time and given a review of the outstanding literature in the invertebrate field. He is also indebted to Charles D. Walcott, chief authority on Cambrian and Precambrian life of the world, 'for the type figures assembled in Plate I.; to Curators Matthew and Gregory of the American Museum for a revision of the text relating to the evolution of the vertebrates; and to the President and Trustees of the American Museum for permission to reproduce the photographs which are assembled to the same scale on Plate II.'
(H. F. O.)
PALESTINE (see 20.600). During the earlier years of the decade 1911-21 little of importance occurred in that country. Afflicted by the economic stagnation and financial strain which affected the whole Ottoman Empire in consequence of the war with Italy (1911-2), and the war with the Balkan States (1912-3), Palestine was unable to develop herself in any way before the outbreak of the World War in 1914. Yet to a section of her population the decision of the Palestinian Jews, in the autumn of 1913, to reject German and insist upon Hebrew as the language of instruction and to secede from the Hilfsverein and set up schools of their own, was momentous. The outbreak of the World War, besides leading to a renewed blockade of the coast, and fresh military requisitions, also involved the expulsion or internment of numerous ecclesiastics and laymen of Entente nationalities and the deportation of numbers of Jews. It was followed at the beginning of 1915 by one of the most destructive visitations of locusts recorded for a generation. Thereafter until the arrival of the British army in the autumn of 1917 the pros- perity of the whole country slowly withered under the crushing burden of the war.
At the time of the British occupation of Jerusalem in Dec. 1917 the economic situation of southern Palestine was bad. Not only had the Turks requisitioned far and wide without repayment, or against inadequate payment, but they had cut down numbers of olives and revenue-producing trees and carried off the greater part of the agricultural and draught animals. The paper cur- rency had depreciated some 84% and was no longer accepted by the producing, classes mostly outlying Moslem peasants who would only discover their concealed stores of grain for gold. The civil population of Jerusalem, dependent ordinarily upon the pilgrim traffic or upon the offerings of pious Jews for its livelihood, was emaciated and reduced by starvation. The only products which Jerusalem had to sell were designed for the pilgrim trade and were unmarketable; consequently at the beginning of the occupation many shops were able to offer only cigarettes, picture-postcards and wild radishes for sale.
In view of this it was urgently necessary to provide food for the exhausted inhabitants of Jerusalem and Palestine, to provide work for the purpose of enabling them to earn money with which to pay for the food, and to re-start trade in order that the mer- cantile community should have something to barter against the gold hoarded by the peasantry and thus make it worth the peasant's while to cultivate and market his produce as he had for some time past realized that his gold was unable to buy the trade goods he required. But there were grave difficulties the single line of railway by which alone food or trade goods could be brought from Egypt was very fully occupied with the para- mount needs of the army. The daily tonnage of supplies alone not including munitions or transport of men or guns varied from 800 to 2,300. Ammunition was of ten. 2 50 tons per day. The civilian population was unaccustomed to the Egyptian currency and more than suspicious of paper money, and Egyptian silver put into circulation was at once hoarded against the prox-
imate return of the Turks, which was confidently predicted by enemy sympathizers who further assured every one that the Egyptian paper pound at par was worth no more than the de- preciated Turkish paper lira and offered to prove it by readily exchanging Turkish for Egyptian pounds whenever possible at a profit to themselves of 173. 7d. on each deal. Yet without money the civilians could not buy food, without food they could scarcely walk from weakness, and there was every prospect of the establishment of a vicious circle.
Brig.-Gen. G. F. Clayton (afterwards Sir Gilbert Clayton), chief political officer to Gen. Allenby, was appointed chief ad- ministrator and began to construct such a form of government as is provided for in " The Laws and Usages of War " laid down by international agreements embodied in the Hague Convention. Transport for a few truck-loads of foodstuffs per week was secured from the military railway, and lorries brought it to Jerusalem until the army was able to reopen the narrow-gauge line from Ludd to the Holy City. Then a small consignment of trade goods came up from Egypt and merchants were permitted to import small quantities from Egypt independently of the over-burthened railway. The labour corps employed numerous civilians, paying them at first daily in Egyptian silver and paper, and then weekly in cash or kind at the choice of the labourer. In this way the new currency came to its own, helped by the stringent measures taken by the military administration to suppress trafficking in or artificial depreciation of Egyptian paper. With the arrival of trade goods in the towns the peasants began to spend their gold and sell their produce so freely that it became unnecessary to import so much food and more accom- modation thus became available for other merchandise. But even so, 900 tons of cereals had to be imported monthly for the use of refugees alone. Gen. Clayton took other steps to restore public confidence and reestablish the amenities of civilization. Bazaar gossip and rumour which for some weeks was hostile to the British was counteracted by the publication of Arabic and Hebrew editions of the newspaper, The Palestine News, which had been started by the army in March 1915, and inter- course with the greater part of the world was rendered possible by the restoration of the postal service, for which special stamps for the use of the civilian population began to be issued on Feb. 16 1918. Steps were taken to reassure the Moslems, who were much alarmed at reports sedulously propagated by the enemy, that all land was to be given to the Jews, and resident British officers were appointed to administer the various kazas of the old Turkish regime. Thus military governors were established at Gaza, with a deputy at Mejdel; at Jaffa, with a deputy at Ramleh; at Beersheba; at Hebron, with a deputy at Deir Aban; and at Jerusalem, with deputies at Bethlehem, Jericho and Ramalla. At first the Occupied Enemy Territory Administration (" O.E.- T.A.") was at Bir Salem, near Ramleh, the general headquarters of the army, but later when it became impossible for Gen. Clay- ton any longer to combine O.E.T.A. with the work of the political mission, Maj.-Gen. Sir Arthur W. Money was appointed chief administrator in April 191 8, and he removed the administration to the imposing and convenient Empress Victoria Hospice built by the Germans on the Mount of Olives just before the war. In March the country had so far recovered that it became possible to collect taxes once more, in May public confidence was greatly increased by the skilful and tactful handling of the great Moslem religious festival of the Nebi Musa pilgrimage, invented by the Turks as an artificial check on the great Christian gathering at Jerusalem for the Orthodox Easter^ with which it always coin- cides regardless of the Moslem calendar, and by the successful way in which the dangerous, and often fatal, ceremony of the Holy Fire on the Orthodox and Gregorian Easter was conducted by Col. Storrs the military governor of Jerusalem, and Haddad Bey the Syrian chief of police.
During the summer the administration was able to resume the payment of revenues appropriated by international agree- ment to the service of the Ottoman debt, but the income of the Moslem Waqfs (pious foundations) was used for the benefit of Moslem beneficiaries in Palestine instead of being drained
