﻿Yol. 6 1.] CKETACEOCJS SYSTEMS OF THE NTLE VALLEY. 673 



there was drainage from higher land to the east were deposits of 

 gravel brought down and laid out on the bed of the lake. 1 Prof. Hull, 

 in discussing the level of the ancient Nile, refers to the terraces 

 on the right bank at El Kab. 2 



(5) Sabaia and Jebel Awaiua. 



The sides of the wadi emerging just east of Sabaia Station show 

 8 metres (26J feet) of finely-laminated light-grey clays, capped by 

 a 2-metre (6|-feet) band of hard, white, fissile, marly, often 

 siliceous limestone, with an intimately associated bone- (or rather 

 coprolite-) bed and oyster-limestone. This bed, if not identical 

 with, is practically on the same horizon as, the oyster-limestone 

 capping the hills between Edfu and Silwa. From the intimate 

 association of the oyster-limestone (containing oysters of the 

 Forgemolli, Villei, etc. group) and bone-bed, and from their position 

 between the almost unfossiliferous sandstones and shales below and 

 the Pecten-M&rh above (in Jebel Awaina), it is highly probable 

 that this hard band is the equivalent of the Ptyclwceras-lAmestone 

 of Wadi Hammama to the north-east of Qena, which Mr. Barron 

 & Dr. Hume believed to form the upper limit of the Cretaceous, 

 and described as being unconformably overlain by the Peeten-Marh, 

 which they regarded as of Eocene age. 3 As I shall presently 

 show, the oyster-limestone and associated bone-bed are conformable 

 to the overlying clays and Pecten-M&Th ; the last-named occur low 

 down in the Cretaceous, being overlain by a considerable thickness 

 of Campanian and Danian clays and chalky limestones, which 

 pass with perfect conformity into the basal beds of the Eocene 

 above. 



Jebel Awaina, 8^ kilometres (5^ miles) north-east of Sabaia 

 Station, is the southernmost outlier of the Eocene nummulitic- 

 limestone plateau. The peak rises to a height of some 450 metres 

 (1476 feet) above sea-level, forming a conspicuous landmark in a 

 desert which is much broken up, owing to the extent and softness 

 of the underlying clays. A little to the south lies the much lower 

 plateau formed of the Nubian Sandstones and shales, capped by the 

 oyster-limestone and associated bone-bed of Campanian age. In 

 the foothills and on the slopes of Jebel Awaina the intermediate 

 beds are exposed, and the first fact that impresses the observer is 

 the absolute conformity of the succession throughout. 



It will be remembered that, in their memoir dealing with the 

 Eastern Desert, Mr. Barron <fc Dr. Hume announced 4 the presence 



1 Schweinfurth has, I think, referred to these deposits, although I cannot, at 

 the moment, give the exact reference. 



2 ' Observations on the Geology of the Nile Valley, & on the Evidence of 

 the Greater Volume of the River at a Former Period ' Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc. 

 vol. lii (1896) p. 314. 



3 ' Topography & Geology of the Eastern Desert of Egypt ' Egypt. Geol. 

 Surv. Report (Cairo, 1902) pp. 165-89. 



4 Op. (At. pp. 117, 176, & 184-86. 



