54 REPORT—1849. 
El Tyh V. continues. Along the Sinaic shores of the sea of Akaba, from Noweibia, 
near which place is IV., the same extends northwards; somewhat to the west and 
north of this coast line, rocks of VI. and V. alternate, and occasionally with IV. ex- 
hibit many remarkable displacements; W. of the granitic Isle of Kureiyeh are black 
basaltic cliffs, VII., along the beach; then N. some breccia or conglomerate is noticed ; 
and afterwards granite rocks succeed. 
Ascending the Wadi el Araba, the mountains on the E. are of VI., chiefly porphyry 
with granite in places, to about 30° N. lat.; near which occurs the watershed, at about 
an elevation of 500 feet above the sea in that Wadi, the inclined bed of which, from 
the gulf to that point, is formed of sand and gravel and debris. Sandstone, V., and some 
chalky limestone, 1V., are met with on the W. side of the Great Wadi Araba. Those 
formations are elevated to about the level of the desert El Tyh, and in spots some- 
what higher. From about the line 30° N. lat. V. extends northwards beyond Gebel 
Harun and the ruins of Petra, both inclusive,—except an intermediate strip in Wadis 
Gharundel and Dalegheh running nearly W. and E., which is IV., and all along the 
E. side of this region, a lofty chain, attaining an altitude of perhaps 3600 feet above 
the sea, which the author termed the ‘ Nabathzan chain,’ and proceeds a great di- 
stance north—consists of IV. On the other, the western side of the valley of the 
Araba, and opposite to Gebel Harun (Mount Hor), the abrupt Gebel Makrah and the 
peak of Gebel Araif el Naka, or the ‘She Camel’s Crest,’ are likewise of the IV. 
formation. South of these begins “the great and terrible wilderness” of El Tyh, 
or ‘ the Wandering,’ which has been already noticed. 
On the east of the Nabathzan chain, as also of the granitic range of Mount Seir 
south of the line 30° N. lat., for a vast distance in the eastern desert, and to the S., 
the limestones of IV. extend. The mountains from Kalah el Akaba, the ‘Castle of 
Akaba, along the Arabian coast, are granitic, VI. At the promontory Ras Furtak is 
a low tract of IV. corresponding with that in the N. side of the opposite isle of Tiran, 
and with that in Wadi Nubk on the Sinaic shore. The coast then, south of the gra- 
nite mount Gebel Makna, in many places is of I., but between those and the granitic 
range behind Ain Uneh and Moweilih, the tertiary sandstone II. is, according to 
Russegger, again developed. Further inland, the sandstones, V., of the lower creta- 
ceous series prevail. 
Again, on the coast of Egypt, S. of Suez, Gebel Ataka, which is of the limestone 
IV., divides a tract on the N. and S. of tertiary limestone, III.; the plain El Baidea 
being of I. S. of this a very considerable district of the secondary limestone LV. 
follows. On the heights above Wadi Zafraneh on the N., a strip of granite, VI., takes 
place, wherein exist traces of old copper mines. Near the coast 8. of Ras Zafraneh, 
some beds of tertiary limestone and marl, III., and some conglomerate rock, are 
found. In the Eastern Desert, a little S. of 28° 30’! N. lat. and about 32° 30! E. 
long., there occurs some of the sandstone, V., of the lower cretaceous series, and called 
by Russegger ‘sandstone of Nubia.’ The mountains rising between that portion of 
the desert and the coast are for a great distance southwards primitive or granitic, VI. ; 
of these Gebel (iarib or Agrib is the loftiest; its summit being elevated to about 
6000 feet above the sea level. Both N. and S. of it are observable remains of 
copper mines. \ 
The fossils of these tertiary and secondary formations have not as yet been suffi- 
ciently examined. Capt. Newbold states that he found among the many fossils of the 
limestone, 1V., Ostree, Echini, Madripore, and Pectines; and Herr Russegger ob- 
serves, that in the compact chalk rock of the same series, 1V., at Ras Hamam in the 
Gulf of Suez, he observed remains of monocotyledonous plants; and in the same for- 
mation, from the Gebel el Tyh, that is to say, compact chalk with flints, were numerous 
fossils. Mr. John Hogg however conceived it probable that some of the limestone 
formation, which Russegger assigns solely to the cretaceous series, in the vast district 
to the N. and E. of Gebel el Tyh, will, on further examination, prove to be of an 
older limestone. So he thought that certain of the sandstones of V. may, after future 
discoveries, be more correctly referred to rocks anterior to the secondary, perhaps to 
the Palzozoic, epoch ; indeed in the older or secondary sandstone, V., Capt. Newbold 
could find no fossils. And with regard to the ages of the primitive or unstratified 
rocks, VI., of the Sinaic group, the same traveller, who examined them recently with 
care, says that the greenstone is the latest, and next in order the porphyry and gra- 
nite, and that the hypogene schists or slates are the oldest. 


