B. B. Neuion — Fossils from Nubian Sandstone, Egypt. 357 



Cenomanian. He quotes Ostrea Boucheroni (?) and Mosasaurus, as 

 occurring in the Nubian Sandstone of Kena in the Nile Valley, as 

 being of Santonian age ; and from El Gayta, about 40 kilometres east 

 of Kus, in the southern half of the Eastern or Arabian Desert, he 

 identified Ostrea Bouckeroni and 0. Bourguignati as Nubian Sandstone 

 fossils belonging to the Santonian ; whilst the siliceous "wood stems, 

 known as Araucarioxylon ^gyptiaciim and Nicolia jEgypiiaca, are 

 recognized as being of Campanian age. 



In connexion with their survey of the central portion of the 

 Eastern Desert of Egypt. Messrs. Barron & Hume ^ state that east 

 of Kena the softer beds of the sandstone near the summit have yielded 

 a vertebra of Mosasaurus. These authors agree with previous opinions, 

 that the Nubian Sandstone has been laid down on an eroded surface of 

 an old igneous region. 



Dr. John Ball,- in his report on Jebel Garra and the Oasis of 

 Kurkur, referred to the Nubian Sandstone as follows: "With the 

 exception of silicified wood and a single badly-preserved gastropod 

 {Natica sp.), no fossils were found by the author in the sandstone 

 of Lower Nubia, but the position of the beds, where overlain by 

 other rocks near Jebel Garra, is such as to leave no doubt of their 

 Cretaceous age." 



A further study of this formation by Dr. Hume '' in the Peninsula 

 of Sinai enabled him to recognize it as probably a marine deposit on 

 account of the coarse conglomerates at its base and the rare occurrence 

 of marine shells in it, referring in this connexion to Dr. Ball's recent 

 discovery of Inoceramus Cripsi near Aswan, which had been determined 

 by Dr. Blanckenhorn. 



In his memoir on the geology of the Aswan district of the Nile 

 Yalley, Dr. Ball^ acknowledges that the age of the Nubian Sandstone 

 has been a frequent subject of controversy. He mentioned that some 

 similar sandstones of Sinai are Carboniferous, whereas those of the 

 Oases and Nubia itself are Cretaceous. His discovery of Inoceramus 

 Cripsi, as determined by Dr. Blanckenhorn, in the sandstone beds close 

 to the west end of the reservoir dam at Aswan, is also referred to. 



Again, in the Eastern Desert of Egypt Dr. Hume ^ gathered some 

 valuable information on the Nubian Sandstone Series and some 

 fossils in connexion therewith. He referred to a fossiliferous shale 

 occurring at Abu Kahal, 40 kilometres east of Edfu, at a depth of 

 over 50 metres (a well boring), containing carbonized plant-remains, 

 numerous examples of a Lingula, a mytiloid shell, Septifer cf. tmeatus 

 of J. de C. Sowerby, sp., as well as a Ganoid scale: "the aspect of 

 the fauna being thus markedly Cretaceous." Further on in the 

 same report Dr. Hume mentioned the discovery of fern-fragments 

 in the Nubian Sandstone to the north-west of IJm Garaiart, in the 

 "Wadi Alagi, by Mr. Charteris Stewart, which, according to Professor 



' Xotes on the Geology of the Eastern Besei't of Egypt (London, 1902), pp. 172, 

 181, 200. 



2 Survey Department, Public Works Ministry, Eg^-pt (Cairo, 1902), pp. 25-9. 



3 Survey Department, Egypt (Cairo, 1906), pp. 152, 153. 

 * Survey Department, Egj-pt (Cairo, 1907), p. 67. 



5 Survey Department, Paper No. 1 (Cairo, 1907), pp. 29, 32, footnotes. 



