Mcs.irs. Barron ^- If time — Eastern Dc^rrt of EijiipL 109 



of it the metamorphic rocks become increasingly prevalent as 

 the Qena-Qosseir road is approached, the granite forniing sharp 

 isolated ridges rising abrnptly from among low hills of sheared 

 diabase or slates. Almost on the southern edge of the area, well- 

 marked gneisses and schists give rise to the range of Meeteg, whose 

 rugged peaks dominate the upper portion of Wadi Sodmein. 



Metamorphic Rocks. — In the following pages only the most 

 important new facts can be touched upon, these being briefly as 

 follows : — 



Gneiss, etc., near Qosseir. — The northern track from Qena to 

 Qosseir, after passing through a granite and dolerite region, suddenly 

 enters a district composed of a grey, slightly schistose rock, breaking 

 off into long splinters. Through it run numerous solution veins 

 of quartz, bands of calcite and carbonate of iron, all of which have 

 been extensively worked. These dates, having a distinct satiny 

 lustre, and forming low ridges on the western edges of the two high 

 ranges of El Rebshi and Meeteg, dip steeply south-west, but at the 

 base of the former mountain system are replaced by underlying 

 green phyUites, into which numerous dykes of dolerite have been 

 intruded, quartz veins being also common. 



The main range of Meeteg itself is composed of a still older 

 series of quartz-mica schists, the j'ounger members of which are 

 of a yellowish colour, splitting readily into blocks more or less 

 cubical in outline. Near the base of the mountain small veins 

 of granite penetrate into the schists, in some places being pinched 

 into these in a lenticular manner. The core of the range is com- 

 posed of a massive red and closely banded grey gneiss, which, 

 in a fine section displayed in the upper portion of Wadi Sodmein, 

 is seen to be successively overlaid by a gabbro, mica-schists, a massive 

 dark dolerite, hornblende-schists, and reddish-white mottled slates. 

 From a little north of this point the valley wanders through a maze 

 of hills of grey and green colour, consisting of micaceous, chloritic, 

 and hornblendic 'schists,' capped by beds of dolerite and diabase, 

 crushed or uncrushed. A question of terminology makes a difficulty, 

 as the same term schist is here applied to these rocks in tlie foothills, 

 which are far less compact than the typical varieties occurring iu 

 the main range. 



Sheared Diabases and Dolerites.—The Wadi Sodmein section is 

 useful because it shows the relative age of the gneiss and the sheared 

 diabases, ashes, and other volcanic rocks, which occupy an enormous 

 area of the southern portion of the Red Sea Hills, viz. 2,500 square 

 kilometres approximately, being the main constituent of the region 

 to the north-west and west of Qosseir, except where sedimentary hills 

 have been faulted in. The sheared diabases and compacted ashes 

 chiefly occur in this district, but further west, as in Wadi Atolla, 

 are replaced by massive dolerites, which in many other localities 

 are found in close association with volcanic members of many 

 diflferent types. This volcanic series is by no means limited to 

 the area above mentioned, but reappears throughout the whole of 

 the Red Sea region at most unexpected localities. Tims, in the 



