September 28, 1905] 



NA TURE 



535 



THE fJVL.V.' 



T^HE palaeontological treasures yielded by the 

 -'• Fayum have made that Egyptian province no 

 less famous among geologists and zoologists than are 

 the " bad lands " of the United States territories, the 

 Sevalik Hills, or Pikermi. The discoveries by Messrs. 

 Beadnell and Andrews of extinct mammals, the study 

 of which serves to clear up the whole question of the 

 ancestry of that strangely specialised group the 

 Proboscidea, are not of less significance than those 

 which enabled Marsh and Huxley to demonstrate how 

 the equally aberrant type of Equidse originated. 



We are glad to learn from the introduction to the 

 present volume that the whole mass of palaeontological 

 material which has been obtained by the Egyptian 

 Government has now been handed over to the authori- 

 ties of the British Museum for the purposes of study 

 and description. While the type-specimens will, we 

 understand, be eventually deposited in the museum 

 at Cairo, a good representative series of duplicates 

 will be retained in this country. 



Preliminary notices by Dr. Andrews and Mr. 

 Beadnell himself concerning the 

 osteology of some of these curious 

 extinct forms of mammalian life 

 have already appeared, but for the 

 full details we must await the 

 promised publications to be issued 

 by the trustees of the British 

 Museum. In the meanw'hile, we 

 welcome the volume before us, 

 which gives a very clear and 

 sug'gestive account of the general 

 features of the district in which 

 these splendid discoveries have 

 been made. 



The Fayum is a circular de- 

 pression in the Libvan Desert, 

 having an area of more than 3000 

 square miles, and is situated to the 

 west of the Nile, some distance 

 south of the latitude of Cairo. 

 The lowest part of the district is 

 occupied by the lake known as the 

 Birket el Qurun, which has an 

 area of between 80 and 90 square 

 miles ; but this area appears to be 

 continually diminishing owing to 

 evaporation. On the south-east 

 side of the lake lies a tract of 

 cultivated land, covered with 

 alluvium similar to that of the 



Nile Valley, and having an area of about 700 square 

 miles. The cultivated area is directly connected with 

 the Nile Valley by a depression through which runs 

 a natural canal — the Bahr Yusef — \vhich conveys 

 water to the Favum and irrigates the whole of the 

 district. 



The remaining area of the Fayum is practically 

 desert, the most interesting part of this desert area 

 being two deep dry depressions in the south-west 

 known as the Wadi Rayan and the Wadi Muela. 

 These depressions have attracted a considerable 

 amount of attention from engineers in recent years, as 

 being possibly capable of conversion into reservoirs 

 for the purposes of irrigation. 



Until the year iSqS, when the examination was 

 commenced by the Geological Survey of Egvpt, little 

 was known concerning the geology of this district. 

 It was crossed in 1879 by Dr. Schweinfurth, who dis- 



1 "The Topography and Geology of the Favum Province of Egypt." 

 By H. J. L. Beadnell, F.OS., F.R.G.S, Quirto Pp. loi. Plates 24. 

 (Cairo ; National Printing Department, 1905.) 



covered bones of the extinct cetacean Zeuglodon, and 

 this seems to have been the first indication of the 

 existence of vertebrate fossils in the district. Soon 

 after the commenceinent of the survey by Mr. 

 Beadnell, under the direction of Captain Lyons, the 

 remains of fish and crocodiles were found to occur 

 in the beds of the Middle Eocene, which had yielded 

 the fossils found by Schweinfurth. A few fragments 

 of bone were also found in the Upper Eocene strata, 

 but it was not until 1901, when Dr. Andrews, of the 

 British Museum, had joined Mr. Beadnell for the 

 purpose of collecting recent North .\frican mammals, 

 that the outcrop of strata was crossed upon which a 

 considerable number of mammalian and reptilian 

 remains lay exposed, many in an excellent state of 

 preservation. Energetic efforts on the part of the 

 authorities of the British Museum and the Egyptian 

 Government have resulted in the rich harvest of 

 paleeontological treasures now awaiting description, 

 some of which are familiar to all visitors , of the 

 Natural Historv Museum at .South Kensington. The 

 study of these extinct types of mammals and reptiles, 

 in addition to affording much new light on the evolu- 



[.— North 



NO. 1874, VOL. 72] 



Y-■^^A 



tion of living forms, cannot fail to increase greatly 

 our knowledge of the successive stages by which the 

 present distribution of these forms of life has been 

 reached. 



The series of strata which have yielded the 

 interesting vertebrate faunas is clearly described by 

 Mr. Beadnell in the work before us. The beds are 

 admirably exhibited in a number of fine escarpments, 

 ."^t the base are found Middle Eocene (Parisian) strata 

 with an aggregate thickness of about 1300 feet. 

 Nummulites and mollusca abound in these beds, 

 which in their lower part contain Zeuglodon and fish 

 remains, and in their higher portion the older of the 

 two vertebrate faunas. The Upper Eocene (Bartonian) 

 which overlie these have a thickness of S30 feet, 

 and, with some remains of mollusca, yield the 

 abundant remains of the second vertebrate fauna. 

 No Miocene strata have been found in the Favum, 

 but about 100 feet of fluvio-marine beds, intercalated 

 with contemporaneous (interbedded) sheets of basalt, 

 and containing silicified trees, are referred to the 



