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into a sandy limestone, or even into a grit with calcareous cement, 
Thus the influence of land gradually increases and the higher strata 
consisting of marly claystones and marly sandstones are observed to 
contain numerous shells of the zone of shallow water which are 
regarded as of pliocene age *) 
The above-mentioned basins or “graben” trend in a direction 
approximately parallel to the longitudinal axis of the island of Timor 
(fig. 1). In a portion of Middle-Timor, as e. g. between Kapan and 
Niki-Niki, one single undivided “graben” exists which might be 
termed the median neogene basin, although generally, the structure 
of the “graben” is more complicated being subdivided by ridges 
(“horsten”) or islands of older formations, which are elongated as 
well in the direction of the longitudinal axis of the island. Thus in 
the eastern portion of Middle-Timor the later-tertiary basin is divided 
by the Mandeo-mountains into two troughs, the Talau-Insana-basin and 
the Benain-basin *), while the latter more to the West again is sub- 
divided by a narrow ridge of older formations into a northern Benain- 
Noilmoeti-basin and a southern Noil Lioe-basin. Faults of considerable 
character occur at the walls of the “graben’’, which by their influence 
have caused the younger tertiary strata in the basin to become suddenly 
curved and bent upwards near the edges. In many places a crush- 
breccia is found between the older formations and the tertiary strata 
thus indicating the position of these marginal or lateral faults. 
During the formation of these “graben” by the slow subsidence 
of their deposits they remained always fairly well filled up with an 
accumulation of late tertiary sediments, from the character of which 
it may be gathered that the sea, although having occupied those 
basins, never attained a great depth. 
These late-tertiary strata besides being tilted near the walls of the 
“oraben’’, also show in places slight disturbances. The entire thickness 
of this formation in the “graben” is unknown although in my 
opinion in the Benain-basin it may safely be estimated at more than 
500 metres. 
True littoral formations such as conglomerates, oysterbanks, coral- 
reefs, ete. lie directly upon these pliocene deposits, and their thickness 
is at least 200 metres in the central axis of the larger or Benain- 
1) The pliocene age of these deposits is proved by MARTIN, who has examined 
the fauna of the marls of Fulumonu in the Talau-basin, which is identical with 
the fauna of the fossiliferous strata in the basin of the Benain. K. Martin. Tertiaer 
von Timor. Beiträge zur Geologie Ost-Asiens and Australiens. Serie I, Band III, 
p. 305. Leiden 1883—1887. 
2) These two basins are united again West of the Mandeo-Mountains, 
