THE 



GEOLOGICAL MAGAZINE. 



NEW SERIES. DECADE V. VOL. V. 



No. II. — FEBRUARY, 1908. 



0:ElXGrXl<TJ^JL, J^KTICLES. 



I, — Flowing "Wells and Sub-Sxjeface Water in Kharga Oasis. 

 By Hugh Johx Llewellyn Beadnell, Assoc. R.S.M., F.G.S. 



WITH the exception of an article written by me for Sir William 

 Willcocks and published in his " ISTile in 1904," ^ and a 

 reference to the relations of the Eocene and Cretaceous in the oasis 

 of Kharga in a paper read before the Geological Society in 19.05,'* 

 nothing has, I believe, been published on the water-supply and 

 geology of this district since Dr. Ball's report in 1900.^ 



Since my first acquaintance with the Libyan desert oases, where 

 from time immemorial a considerable population (at the present day 

 exceeding 30,000) has flourished, the origin of the underlying artesian 

 water, on which the very existence of the inhabitants depends, has 

 always appealed to me as one of the most interesting problems of 

 Egyptian geology. It was not, however, until two years ago, when 

 I took up more or less continued residence in the oases, that I was 

 able to pay special attention to the subject and make a commencement 

 of attacking the problem by undertaking a detailed study of the 

 geology and water-supply of a definite district, the northern part 

 ■of Kharga oasis. 



Before proceeding to a description of the actual district in question 

 it may be well to briefly remark on the chief characteristics of the 

 surrounding country as a whole, a more detailed account of which 

 I hope shortly to give in a separate publication. 



The Libyan desert is the easternmost and most inhospitable portion 

 of the Sahara, or Great Desert of Africa. On the north and east 

 its boundaries are clearly defined by the Mediterranean Sea and the 

 highly cultivated valley of the Nile ; on the south it is bounded by 

 the Darfur and Kordofan regions of the Egyptian Sudan; south- 

 eastwards its limits may be regarded as coterminous with the elevated 



^ "The Oases and the Geology of the Nile Valley," being Chapter 5 of "The 

 Nile in 1904," by Sir William Willcocks, K.C.M.G., Cairo, 1904. 



^ " The Relations of the Eocene and Cretaceous Systems in the Esna- Aswan 

 Reach of the Nile Valley" : Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc, vol. Ixi (1905), pp. 667-678. 



^ "Kharga Oasis: its topography and geology": Egypt. Geol. Surv. Report, 

 Cairo, 1900. 



decade v. VOL. V. NO. II. 4 



