€. CROSSLAND—FORMATION OF SHORE-CLIFF NEAR ALEXANDRIA. Hat 
numerous villas which have recently occupied the sea-front at Ibrahimieh and 
elsewhere on this coast. 
The cliffs, like the desert of which they represent sections, are formed of 
wind-blown sand containing in places stones formed by the consolidation of 
the same material. This is laid down in strata of various thicknesses dipping 
and curving in all directions. A cutting for the electric railway Just beyond 
Palais Station shows thin lamine of just consolidated sand; thicker strata, 
of hard rock, are exposed on the beach. 
The material is, in all cases, coarsely ground shell-fragments, the land being 
thus of marine origin. 
The greater bulk of the material above sea-level between Alexandria and 
the “Sporting Club,” a distance of two or three miles, is composed of the 
rubble, mud and broken pottery remaining from the decay of the ancient 
suburbs of Alexandria. Plate 2. fig. 2 shows a section of this deposit at its 
greatest thickness. The ground has been reduced to its ancient level artificially, 
as shown by the pit in the foreground, which exposes the natural sandstone ; 
and the hill owes its preservation to the strong feeling of the Moslems against 
the removal of the graves of two Sheikhs which occupy the ground. The head- 
stones of these graves being 7 feet in height, the hill is about 60 feet. It is 
composed from top to bottom of rubble, &ec., and numerous fragments of red 
pottery. 
At this point the rubble deposit does not reach sea-level, but as the original 
sand dunes were undulating so the level of the beginning of this formation 
varies—from sea-level to a height of 60 feet or more above it. But generally 
in the neighbourhood of Ibrahimieh the greater part of the cliff is composed 
of these remains. (See Plate 2, fig. 3.) It seems very remarkable how 
rarely larger stones, such as are invariably used in modern houses, are found 
among these fragments, but such walls as remain intact embedded in the cliffs 
are invariably composed of rubble and other materials similar to those used in 
the walls of the poorer native houses of the present time. 
Returning to figs. 1 and 3, a distinct lower layer is seen in the cliffs more 
or less regularly throughout their length. This is generally a more coherent 
and homogeneous sand than that above, which contains loose stones. Lower 
down the beach this passes into sandstone of considerable hardness. Asarule 
there is a beach of loose sand between the cliffs and the hard rock, which 
more often, but not always, begins about low-tide level (tides rise 2 feet at 
springs); but where a continuous bed extends from the cliff to the low-tide level, 
the interesting point is shown that, simultaneously with the discoloration of 
the surface under the influence of the sea, a hardening occurs. The light 
yellow rocks can easily be dug into with the point of a penknife. At the 
higher level of the blackened area this is possible after the surface layer is 
removed. Further down the shore the rock can only be scratched by the 
knife with difficulty though remaining soft inside; the origin of the hard 
