24 PEOCEEDINGS or THE eEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. [DoC. 9, 



by the presence of small veins of sulphur, associated with a white 

 granular gypsum. * 



PharaoWs Baths. — The hot springs known as Pharaoh's Baths rise 

 partly out of the rock at the foot of the cliif close to the sea, or out of the 

 sand of the beach. The two principal springs are the hottest, with 

 a temperature, according to Pigari Bey, of about 160° Pahrenhcit, 

 in April 1847, and, according to Russegger, of 157° in October 1838 ; 

 and it probably still remains the same, although I was unable 

 to ascertain this exactly, having only a comparatively short-scale 

 thermometer, which could not be freely exposed to the action of the 

 water without running the risk of bursting it. As it was, the mer- 

 cury went up to 148 degrees immediately ; and this was the highest 

 point that it was safe to try. The water is clear, with a slight 

 hepatic odour, although no sulphuretted hyd^^ogen could be found by 

 the ordinary tests. It is probably only slightly saline and bitter, 

 like that of all the springs in the lower part of the country near the 

 shore covered by Secondary and Tertiary strata. 



Bituminous Limestone. — The white and bituminous limestones 

 cover a considerable tract of country southward and eastward from 

 Hammam Paraoun. The upper flint- conglomerates are seen again, 

 probably as outlying patches, on the summit of a low hill in Wady 

 Atal, where they rise to about 750 or 800 feet above the sea-level 

 — a position that corresponds approximately with the supposed Plio- 

 cene beach-line in Pigari Bey's map. Lithologically they consist of 

 finely conglomeratic calcareous sandstones, with pectens, and a softer 

 bed full of large oysters, mostly in fragments. These are very similar 

 to the upper brown Tertiary beds overlying the great ISTummulitic 

 series at Cairo. The great plain known as the Marcha, north of the 

 mouth of "Wady Perran, is bounded by a continuous escarpment of 

 the white beds, which in places contain sufficient salt to be considered 

 worth working by the Arabs, although no great quantity can be ob- 

 tained, the mineral occurring in strings and patches in marly beds, 

 not more than an inch or two inches in thickness at most. It is 

 probably from these rocks that the beautifully fibrous and contorted 

 specimens often seen in cabinets, and marked as coming from Arabia, 

 are obtained, as the same structure is very common at the locality in 

 question, which is known as El Laggam, and is near the valley of the 

 same name. 



Another good section, illustrating the relative position of the 

 white limestone and the flint-conglomerates, is to be seen in the 

 lower part of Wady Taibe, where there seems to be a considerable 

 local disturbance of the upper beds. The white beds are nearly flat 

 in the valley about two miles up ; but nearer the shore they roll 

 under a series of red conglomerates and grey calcareous sandstones, 

 full of partially rolled fragments of flints of all sizes, with a few 

 pieces of Pecten, dipping seawards at about 25 degrees. A bed of 

 black doleritic lava is interstratified between two of the coarse con- 

 glomerates ; and an outlier of tire same rock occurs at a higher level 

 further inland, where the beds are flatter. As far, therefore, as can 

 be made out by these instances, the igneous rock is not an intrusive 



