﻿676 MR. H. J. L. BEADNELL ON THE EOCENE AND [Nov. I905,. 



the country. This view is, I venture to think, founded on 

 unassailable facts. 



In the Earafra Oasis the actual junction of the Cretaceous clays 

 with the Eocene Esna Shales was not identified, and, although I 

 then suspected the existence of an unconformity as in Baharia, 

 the observations that I have since made in Kharga Oasis and Jebel 

 Awaina incline me to believe that the Earafra succession falls into 

 line with that which obtains in the southern part of the country. 



The Jebel-Awaina succession shows that, in the southern part of 

 the country, where the Upper Cretaceous and Lower Eocene occur 

 in their fullest development, there is, in ZittePs words, 1 



' no sharp line of demarcation between the Cretaceous and Tertiary, and no 

 disturbances in the stratigraphical succession.' 



Zittel having based his conclusions specially on observations in the 

 oasis of Kharga, I was particularly anxious to examine for myself 

 the succession in that depression ; especially as Dr. J. Ball, 2 biassed 

 perhaps by Messrs. Barron & Hume's results in the Eastern Desert,, 

 in 1900 announced the presence of an unconformity between the 

 Cretaceous and Eocene in that oasis. 



Dr. Ball's conclusions were mainly based on the supposed irregular 

 variation of the Esna Shales ; but, where this occurs, it is mainly 

 due to the fact that, with a slight increase of carbonate of lime,, 

 these beds become almost indistinguishable from the overlying 

 marls and marly limestones of the Eocene. Moreover, in Jebel 

 Um-el-Ghenneiem, where Dr. Ball estimated their thickness at only 

 15 metres (49 feet), I found some 55 metres (180 feet) of green 

 clays between the Ecliinocorys- Chalk and the Eocene marls and 

 limestones, and a perfectly-conformable succession throughout. 



Near Ain Amur there is a considerable development of fossili- 

 ferous limestones at the summit of the Cretaceous, and many of the 

 fossils are hardly distinguishable from Eocene species. 



With this bald statement of some scattered observations of the 

 last few months I must now be content, and reserve details of the 

 Ain- Amur and other sections for future publication. If I have 

 brought forward sufficient evidence to show that the case for an 

 unconformity between the Eocene and Cretaceous in 

 the southern part of the country is not proven, my object 

 is accomplished. The detailed survey of the Esna- Aswan reach of 

 the Nile Valley, now being carried out by my colleague Dr. W. E. 

 Hume, 3 will doubtless throw full light on points which are still 

 obscure. 



1 ' Beitrage znr Geologie & Palaontologie der Libyschen Wiiste : I ' Palse- 

 ontographica, vol. xxx, pt. i (1883) p. 90. 



2 ' Kharga Oasis' Egypt. Geol. Surv. Beport (Cairo, 1900) p. 94. 



3 Dr. Hume asks me to state that he has just found a rich fauna, identical 

 with that characterizing the ' ashen-grey clays ' of the oases, in the clays above 

 the Pecten-Marls in the neighbourhood of Esna (eastern bank). The fossils, 

 as in the Western Desert, are preserved in limonite. This discovery fully 

 confirms my conclusions as to the age of Bed No. 4 in the Jebel-Awaina 

 succession. — April, 1905. 



