T. Barron — Miocene Beds between Cairo and Suez. 603' 



VI. — On tiiic occurrence of Lower Miocene Beds between 

 Cairo and Suez. 



By T. Barrox, A.E.C.S., F.G.S. 



[Published by pennissiou of the ITuder-Secretaiy of State aud the Director-General 

 of the Survey Department, Egypt.] 



IT is remarkable that in this district so accessible to geologists 

 and visited by so many observers, the presence of these beds 

 has not hitherto been noted. When it is understood that the point 

 where the main area occurs is only between 8 and 9 kilometres 

 from Cairo, and lies immediately to the north of the Petrified 

 Forest — a place visited by nearly all the travellers who come to 

 Cairo — one is apt to doubt whether geologists have ever seriously 

 examined this district. 



It has been asserted by some geologists that Lower Miocene beds 

 have been found at various places in this district, but on investigation 

 it has always been shown to be a misinterpretation of the evidence, 

 and up to the present no beds have been noted which contain a true 

 Lower Miocene fauna. 



In 1900 MM. Fourtau and Deperet published a paper ^ in which 

 they claimed to have found at Gebel Geneffe beds containing a fauna 

 belonging to the Upper Burdigalien (first Mediterranean stage), and 

 analogous to that found in the basin of the Rhone, of Corsica, and 

 still more to the Cartennian Sandstone of Algeria. They based their 

 assertion mainl}^ on the presence of Pecten Tournali, de Serres, 

 P. 'prmscahriusculuH, Font., P. cf. sub-henedictus. Font., and P. JTocM, 

 Loc. It is stated that the same beds are found at Der el Beda 

 containing Pecten pseudo-Beudanti, which is identical with the species, 

 of the Hornersohichten of Austria ; at Wadi Gafra, where Pecten 

 pseudo-Beudanti, P. prcsscahrinscuJiis , Font., and P. geneffensis, Fuchs, 

 are found ; and these occur in all the district to the east of Cairo. 

 These observers publish another section which they regard as the 

 continuation of the Miocene series, and the representative of the 

 Helvetian-Tortonian (second Mediterranean). 



Blanckenhorn - says that he has not been able to find the above- 

 named Pectens (except P. geneffensis) on the spot, or in Schweinfurth's 

 collection or any other material at his disposal, and recognises 

 them ^ as his new species P. submaJvina, Blanck., and P. Fransi, Fuchs, 

 whilst P. pseudo-Beudanti he makes P. SchiveinfurtJii, Blanck., all of 

 these being Helvetian fossils. He * also regards the two sections 

 of Fourtau and Deperet as not superposable, but parallel to each 

 other, and by their fossils belonging to the Middle Miocene. 



In his discussion of all the previous work done on the Miocene 



^ " Sur les terrains neogenes de la Basse-Egj^rte et de I'isthme de Suez " : Comptes 

 Eendus des Seances de I'Acad. des Sciences, 1900, pp. 402-3. 



2 " Das Miocau " : Zeitschr. d. Deutsch. geolog. Gesellschaft, 1901, pp. 52-59. 



3 Ibid., pp. 120-127. 

 * Ibid., p. 85. 



