The following detailed section ([Plate XXIII]) will show the character of the beds forming this division. As might be expected in such a series, although the calcareous bands are fairly constant, there is a continuous change of character among the sandy and clayey sediments from point to point; the false-bedding is in places very striking.
The main part of the section was measured 3½ kilometres north-east of Qasr el Sagha, but the lower beds not being exposed at that point, they were added from the cliffs at the ruin itself. The total thickness is 154 metres.
| Top. | Thickness in metres. | |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | Hard, white, grey-weathering, sandylimestone with numerous shell-casts: Echinolampas Crameri,Loriol, Plicatula Bellardi, May.-Eym. | 2 |
| 2. | False-bedded sand and sand-rock with greyand green clays; concretions and bands of ironstone. | |
| Hard, dark-brown or purplish ferruginoussandstone band. Occasional vertebrae of Zeuglodon Osiris,Dames, Pterosphenus (Mœriophis) Schweinfurthi,Andr., crocodilian and fish-remains; coprolites | 16 | |
| 3. | Hard, calcareous, ferruginous, clayeysandstone with brown ironstone concretions. Occasionalfish-spines. | |
| Clays with massive veins of gypsumforming a stock-work, and left weathered out above surface.Cardium Schweinfurthi, May.-Eym., Cardita fajumensis,Oppenh., (Cossmannella ægyptiaca, May.-Eym[60]), Crassatellithes sp. | 9 | |
| 4. | Hard, yellow, gypseous sandy limestone orcalcareous sandstone | 1½ |
| 5. | Sandy, glauconitic clays with gypsum;oyster-bed at base in places. Alectryonia Clot-Beyi,Bellardi, Exogyra Fraasi, May.-Eym. | 10 |
| 2nd escarpment. | ||
| 6. | Hard or friable limestone, sometimessandy, full of Carolia placunoides, Cantr., and ExogyraFraasi, also Ostrea aff. heteroclyta, Defr.,Ostrea Reili, Fraas., O. elegans, Desh., PlicatulaBellardi, May.-Eym., Pectunculus (?) ægyptiacus,Oppenh., Qerunia (Hydractinia) cornuta,May.-Eym. | 2 |
| 7. | Purplish clays interbedded and remarkablycurrent-bedded with ash-grey sands, with both ferruginous andhighly carbonaceous bands with plant-remains, lignite and naturalcharcoal. Vertebrate remains fairly common, the mammalian includingZeuglodon Osiris, Eosiren libyca, Andr.,Mœritherium Lyonsi, Barytherium? Andr.; the reptilianStereogenys Cromeri, Andr., and Tomistoma africanum,Andr., with numerous coprolites; also frequent remains of siluroidand other fish. Masses of coral, Astrohelia similis, Felix,in places | 12 |
| 8. | Hard grey, close-grained, concretionarysandstone, frequently weathering into huge elongated roundedmasses; Turritella pharaonica, Cossm. | |
| Hard, purplish clays with grey sandyclays, sandrock, etc. Occasional crocodile and fish-remains | 4 | |
| 9. | Hard ripple-marked sandstone.False-bedded sandstones with clay partings; ferruginous andlignitic bands with lumps of lignite. Occasionally coprolites andremains of Sirenia and Crocodilia are numerous | 7 |
| 10. | Hard or friable brown sandy limestonewith shell-casts filled with scalenohedra of calcite. Caroliaplacunoides, Turritella sp. | ½ |
| 11. | Gypseous clays, with red ferruginousband; weathering to paper-shales below | 4½ |
| 12. | Light-yellow limestone and calcareoussandstone with sharks’ teeth, Mesalia fasciata, Lam.,Cassidaria sp., Rimella rimosa, Sol.,Trachelochetus bituberculatus, Cossm., Turritellacarinifera, Desh., T. Lessepsi, May.-Eym., Carditafajumensis, Oppenh. Goniopora? | 1 |
| 13. | Slate-blue and brown gypseous clays withband containing Mesalia sp., Cassidaria nilotica,Bell., Exogyra Fraasi and Goniaræa elegans | 3 |
| 14. | Sandstone and sandrock, light yellow | 1 |
| 15. | Yellow sandy friable limestone with castsof shells and Mesalia fasciata, M. oxycrepis,May.-Eym., Turritella Lessepsi, T. pharaonica,Cossm., Alectryonia Clot-Beyi, Ostrea Reili | ½ |
| 16-17. | Sands, sandy clays and clays with adouble band of limestone containing Ampullina hybrida, Lam.,Melongena nilotica, var. bicarinata, May.-Eym.,Tudicla aff. umbilicaris, May.-Eym., TurritellaLessepsi, T. parisiana, May.-Eym., Solarium sp.,Alectryonia Clot-Beyi, Plicatula polymorpha(occasional), Lucina fortisiana, Defr., L. pharaonis,Bell., Mytilus affinis? J. and C. Sowerby, Astroheliasimilis, Goniaræa elegans, Mich.; numerous vertebrateremains both above and between limestones including ZeuglodonOsiris, Eosiren libyca, Barytherium grave, Andr.,Moeritherium Lyonsi, M. gracile, Andr.,Gigantophis Garstini, Andr., PterosphenusSchweinfurthi and Tomistoma africanum, Andr. The remainsof a siluroid fish are abundant; also PropristisSchweinfurthi, Dames. Large numbers of coprolites. Silicifiedwood | 12 |
| 18. | Brown sandy limestone with casts ofshells, Akera aff. striatella, Lam.,Ampullaria, n. sp., Gisortia gigantea, Munst.,Lanistes antiquus, Blanck., Melongena nilotica, var.bicarinata, Mesalia sp., Cassidaria nilotica,C. aff. nodosa, Solarium aff.bistriatum, Desh., Alectryonia Clot-Beyi, CardiumSchweinfurthi, Exogyra Fraasi, Lucina pharaonis,Bell., Macrosolen Hollowaysi, J. Sowerby, Meretrixnitidula, Lam., M. parisiensis, Desh., Ostreaflabellula, Lam., Tellina sp., overlying clays withgypsum | 4 |
| 19. | Sandy limestone with numerous Caroliaplacunoides and Turritella imbricataria, Lam. | 1 |
| 20. | Greyish-blue and brown ferruginous,sandy, and other clays. Plant remains | 13 |
| 21. | Friable shelly limestone with occasionalsmall calcite veins | ½ |
| 22. | Clays | 4 |
| 23. | Hard yellow sandy limestone withOstrea and Anisaster (Agassizia)gibberulus | ½ |
| 24. | Clays with thin bands of fibrousgypsum | 6 |
| 25. | Hard friable shelly limestone withnumerous fossils, including Dictyopleurus Haimi, Dunc. andSlad.; Akera aff. striatella, Turritellacarinifera, T. imbricataria, T. pharaonica,Alectryonia Clot-Beyi, Arca tethyis, Oppenh.,Cardita aff. carinata, J. Sowerby, C. aff.depressa, Locard., C. aff. triparticostata,Cossm., C. cf. gracilis and depressa, Locard.,Cardita fajumensis, Cucullæa aff. crassatina,Lam., Exogyra Fraasi, Glycimeris (Pectunculus)pulvinatus, Lam., Ostrea aff. Reili,Spondylus ægyptiacus, Bull. Newt., Pecten solariolum,May.-Eym., P. moelehensis, May.-Eym., Qeruniacornuta, Euspatangus cairensis, Loriol, Linthiasp., Anisaster gibberulus, Schizaster aff.africanus, Loriol; bryozoa | ½ |
| 26. | Sandy clays with gypsum | 7 |
| 27. | Friable, gypseous, impure limestone withExogyra Fraasi, Carolia placunoides,Turritella sp., Qerunia cornuta, AlectryoniaClot-Beyi | ½ |
| 28. | Sandy gypseous clays | 3 |
| 29. | Friable sandy limestone with Caroliaplacunoides, Exogyra Fraasi, Turritella sp. (Theruin of Qasr el Sagha is built on this bed) | 1 |
| 30. | Gypseous sandy clays with occasionaloyster-limestone with Qerunia cornuta; ferruginous sandstoneband, etc. | 27 |
| Total | 154 | |
| Hard grey sandstone withZeuglodon and numerous Carolia, Ostrea, etc.,in places, capping plain to south of Qasr el Sagha and forming thetop of the “Birket el Qurun series.” | ||
The chief divisions of the series remain fairly constant and can be recognized and followed for many kilometres westwards.[61] The lower beds form the summits of Gar el Gehannem and the neighbouring hills (see [Fig. 2] and section [p. 36]), the upper beds of the series being exposed in the higher escarpments to the north.
Although vertebrate remains are more common on some horizons[62] than on others, they are occasionally met with in most of the beds. The most prolific bone horizon is, however, about half-way down, i.e., those beds numbered 16 and 17 in the above section; bed 7 also yielded a number of remains. At the point where the upper part of the section was measured, 3½ kilometres north-east of Qasr el Sagha, the beds 16 and 17 yielded a considerable number of land-animal remains, all of which occurred within a fairly confined space, suggesting that they had been carried out from the land to this point by a strong river-current and deposited when the latter became too feeble to carry them further out to sea. The same beds were also examined in the faulted bay 8 kilometres to the north, but no bones, or at most a very occasional fragment or two, were obtained here. This is easily explained by the greater distance of this locality from the land-mass to the south. Westwards the same beds were always found more or less bone-bearing, isolated detached mandibles, limb-bones and vertebræ of Mœritherium, being of frequent occurrence, although no such complete remains were found as those from near Qasr el Sagha. Reptilian and fish bones are very widespread throughout the area. An extensive and detailed examination of these beds over a large area can hardly fail to yield important results, as other localities where skeleton-carrying currents came out from the land would very likely be discovered.
That the Qasr el Sagha series was deposited in fairly shallow water at no great distance from land seems certain, not only from the general lithological character of the beds but from the number of land-animal remains and the frequency of river and shore-frequenting whales, dugongs, crocodiles and turtles. The clays, moreover, are found to abound with impressions of plants, and in some cases are highly lignitic, being made up of compressed masses of vegetation including solid twigs, now found in a state more resembling charcoal than ordinary dense lignites; some bands approximate to an impure brown coal. In certain beds of the series further to the west, very thin seams of true coal occur; they were, however, never seen to exceed one or two millimetres. The intercalated bands of limestone are generally impure and do not indicate any great conditions of depth, but only rather a temporary cessation in the supply of sand and clay. Corals, moreover, abound along many horizons.
Plate IX.
UPPER BEDS OF FLUVIO-MARINE SERIES WITH BASALT CAP, LOOKING WEST FROM THE EASTERN EXTREMITY OF JEBEL EL QATRANI.