1868.] BAITERMAIT ARABIA PETR^A. 23 



liberally finished off witli broken bottles. As in the case of Wady 

 Taragi, tte terraced alluvinm of the valley is mainly made up 

 of fragments of gypsum ; and these are often formed into inclined 

 planes by the slipping of the marls below. 



Gharandel (see PL I. fig. 2). — The lower end of Wady Gharandel, 

 where the valley proper abuts upon the alluvial plain of gravel and 

 sand extending about a mile from the beach inland^ is about 60 or 

 80 feet wide, between clifi's of a calcareous grit-stone, finely and re- 

 gularly stratified, that comes out from underneath the gypsum-marls, 

 which dip to the north at an angle of about 20 degrees. These beds 

 are not very fossiliferous : only a few small Nautili, a Pecten, a small 

 Tarritella, two or three single valves of Brachiopods, and a fSerpula 

 were found ; and these required to be chiselled off the faces of the 

 slabs in order to detach them from the rock. On the south side 

 of the valley they form a tolerably high and steep cliff with a flat 

 top, covered with coarse flint-gravel. South of this point, going 

 towards Hammam Earaoun, the escarpment is lower, and frequently 

 cut back on to dry valleys, with many detached pinnacles and square 

 outliers of limestone of a white chalky character, nearly horizontal, 

 and with a few layers of flint near the bottom. When broken, the 

 white limestones are often found to be extremely bituminous ; and 

 in a small dry valley about a mile south of Wady Gharandel, a thin 

 layer of bitumen similar to that of the Dead Sea was found included 

 in a fallen block. Much of the lower part of the limestone is of a 

 snuff-brown colour, from the amount of bitumen contained, forming 

 a material similar to the Seyssel asphalt-rock, employed for making 

 pavements in England and on the continent of Europe. 



The same order of things continues for about three miles : low 

 ridges of soft limestone, which are often hidden for a considerable 

 distance by the terraced gravels and alluvium of the valley called 

 Wady Hussied, gradually approach the shore until they are succeeded 

 by the great cliff of Bukel el Earoun, which rises from the sea to a 

 height of about 1500 feet. This is made up of a bluish-grey or white 

 crystalline limestone, not very distinctly stratified, but enough so 

 to be seen dipping, at an angle of about 20 or 25 degrees, towards 

 the north, a direction which would make it pass under the bituminous 

 bed ; and this is most probably the case, although the exact junction 

 is not seen, owing to the great spread of the superficial deposits of 

 Wady Hussied. However this may be, there is no doubt of the 

 occurrence of ISTummulites both in the upper white and bituminous 

 beds and in the more crystalline limestone below; and the same 

 fossils were found some distance beyond the point where the springs 

 rise. But for this there would be considerable difiiculty in assign- 

 ing the lower beds to their proper horizon, as they are very much 

 unlike the jN'ummulitic rocks of Egypt, being of a crystalline or semi- 

 metamorphic character. Their resemblance to the rocks of the Wady 

 Araba, on the opposite side of the Eed Sea, has led Dr. Eigari Bey to 

 regard them as belonging to the Oolitic period ; but I have been un- 

 able to concur in this view, owing to the presence of the fossils. 

 The apparent metamorphic character of the rock is further increased 



