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



In connexion with the geology of Wadi Arabah, Professor 

 Schweinf urth ^ referred to the absence of fossils in the jS'ubian 

 Sandstone (with the exception of silicified wood) as follows: " C'est 

 en vain que certains Yoyageurs ont essaye de convaincre le monde 

 geologique qu'ils avaient eux-memes detache des petrifications de ce 

 gres." He further remarks that we often mistake sandstone-looking 

 rocks, which represent in Egypt the lower stage of the Upper Chalk 

 and which are rich in fossils, for the true jS'ubian Sandstone, which 

 pass insensibly into them. 



Professor 'Walther - originated the theory that the so - called 

 ' Kubischer Sandstein' was an seolian dune formation which pointed 

 to the existence of Palaeozoic and Mesozoic deserts in Northern Africa. 



An iron-ore deposit in the neighbourhood of Wadi Haifa has been 

 described by Captain Lyons ^ as part of the Nubian Sandstone Series. 

 It occurs in lenticular bands, and is usually of strongly oolitic stnicture 

 containing fragmentary fossil wood, but, so far as his observations 

 extended, without any other organic remains. The Nubian Sandstone 

 was considered of estuarine origin, and not formed in the waters of 

 a vast inland lake as maintained by Professor Edward Hull.^ Captain 

 Lyons was further of opinion that the sandstone of the Libyan area 

 was Cretaceous, whilst that of the eastern parts of Egypt, Sinai, and 

 Palestine was deposited during Carboniferous times. 



When writing upon the geology of the Nile Valley, Professor HulP 

 stated that he had examined parts of the Nubian Sandstone of that 

 area and had found it to be very unlike in mineral character to that 

 of Cretaceous age in Arabia Petraea and the Arabah Valley, but he did 

 not on that account think that such data were sufficient for regarding 

 these distant deposits as of different geological ages. 



Remarking further upon this subject, Captain Lyons ^ observed that 

 the Nubian Sandstone to the south-east of Korosko (Nubia) "is laid 

 down on the flanks of the crystalline hills, with little or no dip ". It 

 is of quartzose composition of variable colour — yellow, brown, and red, 

 from staining by oxides of iron and manganese. Sometimes a more 

 argillaceous bed is present, but this is not constant. No rock intrusion 

 of the sandstone was observable. 



In his extended account of this formation. Dr. Blanckenhorn ' 

 mentions Russegger's discovery of the shell-cast near Aswan, which 

 was said to resemble Cyclas faha of the Wealden formation. He does 

 not favour the Garumnian age of the sandstone as advocated by 

 Coquand. In a correlation scheme of the Cretaceous formations of 

 Egypt he regards the Nubian Sandstone of the Libyan Desert as 

 Campanian, that of the Nile Valley and southern parts of the Arabian 

 Desert as Santonian, and the northern parts of the Arabian Desert as 



1 Bull. Instit. Eg>T)tien, 1888, ser. ii, No. 8, p. 156. 



2 Verhandl. Ges. Erdkunde, Berlin, 1888, vol. xv, p. 253. 



3 Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc, 1894, vol. 1, pp. 531-47. 

 * Trans. Victoria Institute, 1890, vol. xxiv, p. 317. 



5 Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc, 1896, vol. lii, p. 311. 



^ Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc, 1897, vol. liii, p. 362, -with sketch-map sll0^ying 

 distribution of sandstone in that area. 



T Zeitsch. Deutsch. Geol. Ges., 1900, p. 31. 



