BE. J. W. EVANS ON MECHANICALLY-FORMED [Aug. I9OO, 



directly upon the granite. Xear Bas Abu Ashrin, see [4] A pp. 33- 

 34 & B pp. 566-68, is 



< a tract of white dome-shaped sand-hills from 100 to 200 feet above the level 

 of the sea. These extend inland as far as the eye can reach, and are scarped 

 upon the sea '- 1 



The formation consists of a ' sandy grained rock ' formed of 



' calcareous particles with a small quantity of hyaline quartz and dark specks, 

 probably hornblende, from the igneous rocks. . . . There is hardly a fossil larger 

 than the grains of which it is composed to be seen in any part of it ; it is more 

 or less stratified and, though loose in structure, sufficiently compact to form a 

 good building-stone. ... It is so loose on the surface that the upper and 

 exposed part has become disintegrated for some depth. ... In some parts the 

 sand is so subtle that it yields to the lightest weight, while in others it is so 

 caked that it will bear that of a man.' 



He compares these calcareous sand-hills to pictures that he has seen 

 of drift-mounds of snow in the Arctic regions. 2 The calcareous 

 particles are stated to consist of the remains of minute foraminifera. 



Fig. 3. 



"Bo Jo -"3° 



Recent Oolitic Deposit 



X Localities where the Miliolite of 



Carter has been found. 



Scale of Miles 

 200 400 



The ' miliolite '-deposits here and at many other points on this 

 coust resemble the Junagarh Limestone and Porbandar Stone, and 

 similar deposits in Kathiawar and Kach, in the striking absence 

 of organic remains larger than the granules of which the rock is 

 made up. But this is by no means the case everywhere on the 

 south-eastern coast of Arabia, as the following extracts will show : — 



• Capping the plain of Marbat, the highest part of which ... is about 30 feet 

 above the level of the sea, is a granular deposit composed chiefly of particles 

 of carbonate of lime with which are mixed more or less grains of quartz and 

 hornblende from the igneous rocks on which it reposes. It is about a yard in 



1 The thickness is unknown ; the cliffs, which they form, do not exceed 

 100 feet in height. 



2 He suggests that these may be the winding sands mentioned in the Koran, 

 in which the tribe of Ad is said to have perished. 



