Fig. 1.
Cliff Section, Saffi.
to him by a Moor from Agadir, and obtained, at a height of 1,500 feet, on the flanks of the maritime termination of the Great Atlas range, 160 miles south of the Saffi section.
Two or three miles south of Saffi another section occurs, known as the ‘Jew’s Cliff;’ and from this Dr. Hooker, who landed on his homeward voyage, obtained a few fossils, viz. several undeterminable species of Pecten; an Ostrea allied to 0. Virleti, and a scutelliform Echinus of an unknown type, which Mr. Etheridge proposes to place under a new genus, and names Rotuloidea fimbriata. All these Mr. Etheridge supposes to be of Miocene age; and the ‘Jew’s Cliff’ section may probably give the key to the age of the beds of the Marocco plain in which we found no fossils. In connection with the occurrence of these Tertiary beds at Saffi, I must refer to MM. Desquin and Mourlon’s observations in the neighbourhood of Mazagan to the north-west, near which, at a place called Sidi Moussa, calcareous tufas associated with flints occur, containing
Fig. 2.
Rotuloidea fimbriata, Etheridge.
- 1. Dorsal aspect, showing the twelve fimbriations, subpetaloid ambulacra and central madreporic tubercle.
- 2. Ventral aspect, showing mouth, position of vent, and ramifying furrows.
- 3. Posterior border and height of test.
- 4. Apical disk, with the madreporic tubercle, the four genital pores, and place of the five oculars.
Solen, Venus, Modiola, Cardium, &c.; the deposit in its main characters resembling the description given by M. Coquand of the fluvio-marine travertines of the north of Marocco, and also the Sahara beds described by M. Ville; with the difference that the Sahara deposits are characterised by the presence of little Paludinas, whilst those of Sidi Moussa are full of vermiculiform perforations. The depressions are occupied by a very porous conglomerate, passing into a calcareous sandstone used for building. This conglomerate contains an abundance of Helix vermiculata, a species living in the country, and also found in the calcareous sands which are supposed to be of post-Pliocene age. The plain of Doukala (Ducaila of Washington), at a level of about 140 feet above the sea, is covered with these sands. At Sidi Ammer an escarpment was observed, the base of which consisted of clay and red ferruginous marls, containing a stratum formed for the most part of oysters, in which also Teredina personata occurred, supposed by M. Nyst to belong to the Eocene formation; succeeded by another fossiliferous bed containing