



THE CIVIL ENGINEER AND ARCHITECT'S JOURNAL, 



[Jan. 27» 



Gobi, Hifldostan and Persia, are noted for their sands ; the Suez and 

 Nubian, and Arabian deserts, for their saline and fossil beds, some ot 

 the Persian deserts, the desert of Ava, and others, for their immense 

 quantities of naphtha, petroleum or mineral pitch ; all of them abound 

 with fossils, of species analagous to those now inhabiting the bor- 

 derine seas, with petrifactions in which many species of fish may be 

 distinguished, commingled with natron, the sulphates, and muriates, 

 svpsum, limestone, magnesia, ocean marl, and other peculiar products, 

 which denote oceanic origin: such is tke general composition and 

 character of the exterior beds, and such it appears to be beneath the 

 surface, so far as the discoveries of man extend. Even the rocks ot 

 syenite, basalt, porphyry, sandstone and limestone, partake of the same 

 nature, and from the simplicity of their components, and the tota ab- 

 sence of potash and other peculiar products of terrestrial vegetables, 

 must be exclusively assigned to the ocean. In and througliout the 

 whole, the coral formations are exceedingly extensive, passing by a 

 rariety of transitions into rocks and earths, and silicified stones, and 

 in the latter state lying loosely spread over the valleys, resembling in 

 appearance, and being often mistaken for trunks of trees. 



" The Arabian Desert," says Niebuhr, " bears every mark of having 

 recently been a part of the bed of the ocean ; and its little elevation 

 above the sea would require but a small rise of its waters to restore 

 this desolate track to its former condition. Its subsoil like that of the 

 deserts is a grey clay, with a large proportion of sand intermixed with 

 marine exuvis, extending to a great distance from the sea. It con- 

 tains large strata of muriate of soda, which in some places rise up in 

 hills of considerable elevation. Its gentle and uniform slop? towards 

 the sea seems to indicate that it has gradually emerged from the ocean, 

 which is still receding from it." The advance of the land upon the 

 Gulf of Persia is exceeding great; indeed Charles T. Bell calculates it 

 to be more than 280 miles since the last catastrophe, and there is cer- 

 tainly every reason to suppose that the whole extent of the great 

 salt desert was at no very distant period covered by the waters of the 

 Gulf, everything upon and beneath its surface demonstrating oceanic 

 origin. The great salt plain at the head of the Red Sea is of like 

 composition with the surrounding deserts, and in the days of the early 

 kings of Egypt, must have been entirely covered by the ocean waters, 

 and indeed the whole of the Suez, Egyptian, Syrian, Lybian, Mesopo- 

 taroian, and Nubian Deserts bear inconteslible evidence of their ma- 

 rine nature ; the elevated plateau being almost wholly calcareous, or 

 consisting of extensive fossil formations, and beds of salt. The soils 

 of Syria, Palestine, and a great portion of Turkey in Asia, are of fossil 

 formation, the greater portion of which is still uncovered, and unaf- 

 fected by terrestrial vegetable matters. Syria abounds with salt lakes, 

 and the soil of Palestine is so impregnated with bitter acrid salts and 

 sulphur, as to render it wholly unfit for cultivation, even the waters of 

 the river Jordan during the dry season, are brackish and unwholesome, 

 flowing through hills of ocean marl of the consistence of clay : in fact, 

 divested of its historical reminiscences, Palestine, composed of barren 

 mountains and numerous deserts, is, considered as one whole, far from 

 being favourable to the happiness or increase of the human race, de- 

 pending entirely upon the rise of its rivers and periodical rains for its 

 agricultural produce, and in periods of drought, which often occur, it 

 too often suffers the triple scourge of famine, pestilence, and plague. 

 Nor can we forget the Dead Sea, which is disposed in a valley of sa t 

 and mineral pitch: the hills by which it is surrounded are chiefly cal- 

 careous and abounding with fossils. Passing eastward over the great 

 desert of Bockhara towards the Persian Gulf, we find the sea retreat- 

 ing from Baloochistan on the one side, where a great sandy desert is 

 formed, and from Cutch on the other side ; the great run being one 

 vast sandy flat, containing immense quantities of muriate of soda, and 

 covering a surface of 7000 square miles; but, however extensive, it is 

 comparatively insignificant compared to the great desert with vyhich 

 it is united, embracing the important provinces of Agmere and Ra] poo- 

 tana. The drying off of inland seas is also an undeniable fact ; thus 

 the communications between the Caspian and the Black Sea, and the 

 Red Sea and the Mediterranean, have been broken up, and the land is 

 still encroaching upon the waters to a vast extent. One of the deserts 

 of the Caubul territory is about 400 miles in length, and composed of 

 sand hills and indurated clay. 



Besides the acrid or saline deserts which more immediately embrace 

 the rainless regions situate within the tropical band, there are other 

 immense tracks of waste and unproductive soil termed STEPPES. The 

 Steppe of the Dnieper comprehends a vast plain between the Dnieper 

 and the Bogue, of a dry and sand^ quality, containing many salt lakes 

 and salt plots. The Steppe of the Don and Volga, comprehends all 

 the space between the Don, the Volga, and the Kuban: it is a very 

 large acrid steppe, contauiing several salt lakes and salt plots, and 

 abundance of sulphur. Within the confines of this steppe is what is 

 called the Kuman Steppe, in which lie the salt lakes of Astrakan, 



several bitter lakes and warm springs, having every appearance of 

 being a dried up sea : this being rendered more probable by the ap- 

 pearance of the flat shores of the Caspian and Azof Seas, the shallow- 

 ness of their coasts, the low situation of the Steppe, and the nature of 

 its compounds. The Steppe of the Volga and Ural, called the Kal- 

 muck Steppe, consists of a far stretching ridge of sandstones, extending 

 from the middle of the mountains to the Caspian, and of the vast ex- 

 tent of plain on either side of these mountains : its constituents evi- 

 dence its having been the bottom of a sea, rock salt and salt lakes 

 being thickly diffused over the whole plains. Other Steppes there 

 are stretching towards the north, and partially or wholly waste. 



In South America there are also very extensive steppes consisting 

 of beds of sand, saline deposits, and other products of sea water, by 

 which they are rendered barren and desolate, there being only a few 

 acrid plants and scrub wood dotting their surface. The slight eleva- 

 tion of the Llanos, of Varinos, and the Caraceas ; the Bosques and 

 forests of the Amazon; and the Pampas of Buenos Ayres, make it ap- 

 pear that the waters of the Atlantic formerly covered this great extent 

 of land ; forming immense gulfs in the dry land, reaching the base of 

 the Andes. 



The nature of the changes produced in the oceanic earths depends 

 on the nature of the local affections to which these earths are sub- 

 jected; thus, for instance, in Arabia Felix, the salts, phosphates, car- 

 bonates, and sulphates, being produced, remain unchanged from age 

 to age : but on the Abyssinian side of the Red Sea, a distance of only 

 a few leagues, in consequence of the abundance of rains, the salts and 

 other volatile and vaporous products, which are inimical to life, are 

 washed into the bowels of the earth, and are thus united with com- 

 pounds composing the lower strata, or in their union with each other, 

 form neutral bodies : at the same time, the shells of moUusca either 

 decompose, or gradually indurating, separate in their parts, and pass 

 by transition into stones and pebbles. The decomposed masses of 

 carbonate of hme unite as rock, and the earth soon becomes covered 

 with coarse grasses and scrub wood, to be replaced by the acacia and . 

 eventually by trees of a nobler growth, more complicated, and of 

 a higher order of development. Animal species and genera no sooner 

 find their food covering the new made soil than they repair to it, and 

 propagate in their generations, and very often the locality has both 

 animals and vegetables peculiar to itself. In whatever part of the 

 world we view nature, in production and reproduction, the very deter- 

 minate effects of local influences are strikingly manifest in the pro- 

 duction of organic and inorganic bodies. 



Removed from the influences of terrestrial matters, produced by 

 the animal and vegetable orders, genera and species are eventually- 

 produced, and as a necessary consequence, various compounds and fossil 

 and mineral formations are generated. The young oceanic earth rests in 

 its own strength, and the changes which take place in the various de- 

 positions of matter are wholly governed by local influences. In those 

 parts of the earth where the heat is excessive, and the rains seldom 

 or never fall, nature slumbers for ages in organic production, confining 

 her operations to the mineral kingdom, or if genera, orders, and 

 species, of animals and vegetables are developed, they are such as 

 are conformable to the sterility of the soil, being in the simplicity of 

 organical structure; thus the land is desert, ever presenting the like 

 monotonous view to the traveller, who treads interminable plains of 

 sand, intersected with groups and chains of hills equally barren and 

 unproductive, abounding with noxious exhalations, poisonous gases, 

 bitter salts, and sulphur, all around speaking of imperfection, the or- 

 ganic body decomposing, and the mineral body forming : of the beauty 

 and variety common to a more favourable soil and climate, nothing is 

 to be found but a few crystalline bodies of comparatively little value ; 

 not one spark of animal life appears to cheer the dreary scene. In 

 this desert sterile state the earth reposes, free from the continued 

 action and addition of accumulating matters producing in other loca- 

 lities : but even in regions the most forbidding and destructive to 

 organic creatures, nature acts unceasingly in creating mineral bodies 

 and mineral beds from the fossil soils spreading forth on every side; 

 the cast off clothing of mollusca and fishes, preserved from decompo- 

 sition, in the re-combination of their atomic structure, become things 

 of other name and nature ; the beds of the valleys become covered 

 with petrifactions, the sands sparkle with crystalline or efflorescing 

 salts, the decomposed masses of commingled oceanic matter are con- 

 verted into gypsum, alabaster, marble, sandstone and other species of 

 rock, and a degree of order takes place where confusion and disunion 

 previously revelled triumphant. The periods necessarily required to 

 effect these multitudious changes depend entirely upon association 

 and climate : excess of dry heat, or excess of moisture alike militating 

 against the development of terrestrial organic bodies. When inces- 

 sant drv heat acts upon the thirsty soil, it oxidates all bodies of a cal- 

 careous nature, and causes the coral reef, and the beds of shell tisb, to 



