T. Barron — Miocene Beds hetiveen Cairo and Suez. 607- 



These overlie the basalt, and are seen to pass under the fossiliferous 

 beds of the Miocene. 



At the Middle Station, Old Eailway to Suez, some gypseous 

 marls and brown ferruginous limestones are brought up by a fault 

 and exposed in a cutting. These contain the following fossils : — 

 Pecten sp., Cardita sp., Area cf. Ficldelli, Desh., Cardium multi- 

 costatum, Brocc, Cardium sp., Dosinia Adansoni, Phil., Venus ovata, 

 Penn. (numerous), V. midtilnmellata, Lam., V. cf. pltcata, Gmel., 

 Venus sp., Cytherea erycina, Lam., TrocJius tauro-miocaenicus, Sacc, 

 Turbo tauro-miocenicus, Sacc, Turritella terebralis, Lam., Ficida sp., 

 Triton sp.. Scaphander lignarius, Lam., Scaphander sp. 



At the foot of the Miocene escarpment to the south-west of Gebel 

 Gafeisad or Agleiat Qamr, Lower Miocene fossils were also found 

 in some sandy beds, while pieces of mammalian bones in a bad 

 state of preservation were also seen. 



From the base of the Miocene cliff 15 kilometres east of Der el 

 Beda the following fossils were obtained : — Scutella Dejlersi, Gauth., 

 Scutella sp., Brissopsis, sp. nov., Pecten Kochi, Loc, P. Schweinfurthi, 

 Blanck., P. Zizinice, Blanck., P. submalvince, Blanck., P. hurdiga- 

 lensis, Lam., Pecten sp., Pectuncuhis sp., Cardita sp., Cardium 

 paucicostatum, Sow., C. multicostatiim, Brocc, Cardium sp., Dosinia 

 orbicularis, Ag., (?) Venus sp., Cytherea sp., Tapes vetula, Bast., 

 Corbula revoliita, Brocc, Turritella sp., Ficula condita, Brongn. 

 Here there is undoubtedly a mingling of Helvetian and Lower 

 Miocene fossils which marks what may be regarded as the passage- 

 bed between these two stages of the Miocene. 



At the foot of Gebel Geneffe a series of unfossiliferous beds 

 (brown sandy limestones, gypseous clays, gypsumized limestone, 

 and greenish marls) occur ; they form a part of the Lower Miocene, 

 as is shown by correlating the overlying fossiliferous beds with 

 those in other sections in which these latter are found always to 

 overlie the Lower Miocene beds. 



In this district there is abundant proof to show that there was 

 a great overlap of the Miocene beds from west to east. Near Cairo 

 they lie on a thin layer of basalt which is a good distance from any 

 of the known volcanic necks ; further east in the immediate neigh- 

 bourhood of the vents no basalt is found under the Miocene rocks 

 except in very small patches, while the Oligocene sands and gravels 

 are much thinner. This, to the writer's mind, is best explained 

 by a gradual overlap from west to east. If it were otherwise, the 

 basalt ought to be thickest in the neighbourhood of the volcanic 

 vents, while west and east from them it would gradually thin out 

 and disappear. The converse is the case, as the main basalt flow 

 on the west side is remote from the volcano, while only on the 

 flanks of the cone is it found close to the vent, and on the east it is 

 entirely absent. The earlier submergence of the area near Cairo has 

 protected the basalt from being totally swept away, as was the case 

 with the longer exposed area to the east. 



It would seem also as if deeper water existed to the east in 

 Helvetian times, while the white limestone found there in such 



DECADE r. — VOL. I. — XO. XII. 36 



