354 R. B. Newton — Fossils from Nubian Sandstone, Egypt. 



Joseph Russegger ^ was apparently the first geologist to recognize 

 these rocks as the Nubian Sandstone — ' JSTubischer Sandstein.' He 

 found it underlying the Cretaceous beds of Southern Egypt (Edfu, 

 Aswan, and Kalabsha) and Northern Nubia (Korosko, etc.), associated 

 with concretionary iron sandstone and brown ironstone, and with no 

 evidence of fossils throughout its development. He regarded its age 

 as Triassic and comparable to the European Keuper. 



Lefevre,^ another of the early students of this formation, ascribed 

 its origin to the Cretaceous period, from an examination of the sand- 

 stone at Aswan (= Syene). Ehrenberg^ came to similar conclusions 

 after surveying the same area. He found that the "limestone is 

 incumbent on sandstone — Quadersandstein ? — and the two repose on 

 granite and the primary rocks connected therewith ". 



The first mention of fossils in the Nubian Sandstone was made by 

 Russegger,* who recorded the occurrence of dicotyledonous stems and 

 a Cyclas from near Aswan, his statement being as follows : "In diesem 

 Sandsteine der mit bunten Thonstraten wechselt, fand ich eine Cyklas 

 (Faba, Miinster ? Steinkern mit einem kleinen Theil der aufsitzenden 

 Schale), die einzige Versteinerung, die ich ausser Dikotyledonen- 

 stammen in diesem Sandsteine in ganz Egypten und Nubia zu finden 

 Gelegenheit hatte." On this occasion the author resigned his previous 

 views of a Triassic age for this formation and determined it as 

 Cretaceous — " Griinsandstein, Quadersandstein, Wealderthon." He 

 also correlated the Sinaitic Sandstones with those of Lower and Upper 

 Egypt and Nubia, and afterwards set out such results in tabular 

 arrangement, which was published in a later volume of his Reisen.^ 

 The sandstone beds at Kalabsha were described as being horizontal. 



According to Newbold's work on The Geology of Ugypt,^ only 

 coniferous woods were found in the Nubian desert, whilst the silicified 

 woods of the Egyptian desert were dicotyledonous. Newbold was, 

 however, unable to fix the geological position of the sandstone 

 formation. 



In his geological description of the first cataract of Egypt, J. C. 

 Hawkshaw '' referred to the crystalline rocks forming the bed of the 

 Nile being overlain on both banks by a sandstone of variable con- 

 sistency and frequently impregnated with iron. He also observed 

 that the sandstone contained ' ' no vestige of organic remains, unless 

 some of the nodules and concretions of ironstone can be regarded as 

 indicative of such, as many of these appear at first sight to be the 

 actual casts of shells". 



It was Lartet's ^ opinion that the Nubian Sandstone should be 



1 Neues Jahrb., 1837, pp. 665-9 ; ibid., 1838, p. 630 ; ibid., 1840, p. 57. 

 Bull. Soc. Geol. France, 1839, vol. x, pp. 234-9. 



2 Bull. Soc. Geol. France, 1839, vol. x, p. 144. 



3 London, Edinburgh, Dublin Phil. Mag., 1841, vol. xviii, p. 394. 



* Reisen in Europa, Asian, und Afrika (Stuttgart, 1843), vol. ii, pt. i, pp. 276, 

 306, 314, 330, 570, 575. 



» 1847, vol. iii, pp. 285-9. 



* Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc, 1848, vol. iv, pp. 324-57. (An abstract of this paper 

 was published in the Proc. Geol. Soc. London, 1842, vol. iii, pp. 785, 786.) 



7 Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc, 1867, vol. xxiii, pp. 115-19, with geological sketch-map. 



8 Bull. Soc Geol. France, 1868, ser. ii, vol. xxv, p. 490. 



