JABAL MISHRAK AND HAMMAM ALL 25 



could never be more than a small industry, unless something could 

 be done as well with the hydrogen sulphide which issues with the 

 oil in borings. 



6th January, 1919. 



REPORT No. 5. POSSIBILITIES OF OBTAINING OIL IN THE JABAL 

 MISHRAK AND COUNTRY WEST OF HAMMAM ALL 



Maps.— £ inch=l mile ; PL 3. 



Introduction. 

 The term Jabal Mishrak is applied to some hills overlooking the 

 Tigris on its right bank opposite the confluence of the Greater Zab. 

 The range is continued N.N.W'wards towards Minqar somewhat 

 interruptedly by the Tel Sulaiman and other hills with no established 

 name. I propose to include them all under the designation " Jabal 

 Mishrak." It has neither the simplicity nor the same degree of 

 regularity of the ranges hitherto described, and this is paralleled 

 by irregularity in the anticline which it constitutes. The hills 

 commence to rise above Hadra village on the Tigris and merge into 

 high ground N.N.W. of Jahannam towards Minqar, which swings round 

 to the west past Kharrar. Exposures are fairly good except along 

 the western flank, where alluvium has obscured the structure, and, 

 in the south, the boundary line between the Fars and the red clays 

 and sandstones of the Kurd series which succeeds it. North of the 

 AYadi-al-Adbar the Mishrak fold merges into a vast exposure of Fars 

 beds which are never far from the horizontal and roll hither and 

 thither in a somewhat capricious way, though there is always a 

 tendency to preserve a N.W — S.E. direction, which is shared to 

 some extent by the hills. North-west of Hammam Ali, a town 14 

 miles S.S.E. of Mosul, the ground is considerably broken and the 

 surface littered with limestone fragments. I was much hindered 

 in my examination of the Mishrak area by atrocious weather. 



Rocks. 



The rocks comprise the usual core of Fars, which is cut off east- 

 wards by the river Tigris and low-lying alluvium. To the south- 

 west between Shura and Hadra some badly exposed thin reddish 

 sandstone has been assigned to the Kurd series ; beyond this north- 



c 



