26 PASCOE: GEOLOGICAL NOTES ON MESOPOTAMIA. 



westwards the Fars outcrop is continuous with Fars beds which 

 seem to form another low anticline, south-west of the Mishrak 

 axis. Northwards nothing but Fars, sometimes partially hidden 

 beneath alluvium, is seen as far as Mosul. 



Fars sen'es.— The Fars series consists of the usual beds already 

 described in other reports, the prominent physical features south- 

 east of Rassif, those of Tel Sulaiman and the hills around Jahannam 

 being produced by limestone. One of these limestone bands cover- 

 ing a large area S.S.W. and W. of Hammam Ali, caps a thick bed 

 of soft clay, the result being chaos. The clay has given way and 

 the limestone fractured into numerous fragments which lie about 

 at all angles, entirely obscuring the dip ; the clay band is largely 

 responsible for the bad road between Shura and Hammam Ali 

 The only new feature worthy of notice in this series is the advent 

 near the top of some thin bands of sandstone, sometimes reddish, 

 as near Tel Mujman where it is overlain by f ossiferous limestone, 

 or sometimes thin pebbly coarse sandstone full of broken shells 

 underlying a band of white gypsum, as seen near Safatiyah ; frag- 

 ments of the latter type are seen lying about the surface east of 

 Shura. The sulphur and bitumen emanations Will be referred to later. 



Kurd series.— The red clays and sandstones of the Kurd beds 

 form a syncline between the Jabal Qaiyarah and Jabal Mishrak, 

 pitching to the south-east, and partly interrupted, as far as could 

 be made out, by the end of a low flat anticline pitching in the same 

 direction along a line not far from the town of Shura. The alluvium 

 conceals most of the series, but the impression gained was that the 

 greater part of the outcrop is limited to the lower horizons, consist- 

 ing mostly of red clay. A little more sandstone occurs near Haudh, 

 but although gravel and a conglomerate are seen on the surface of 

 the plateau here, there is no certain evidence that the Conglomeratic 

 stage of this series is actually present. Three miles west of Safinah 

 some poorly exposed thin reddish-brown sandstone just pierces 

 the alluvium. Similar sandstone occurs in the top of the Fars, as 

 already mentioned ; but since the beds in question are not apparently 

 succeeded by any gypsum or limestone, they have been allotted to the 

 Kurd series, and the boundary drawn along the upper part of the 

 Haudh stream-course ; this also fell into line with what appeared 

 to be the same boundary separating Fars and red clays on the oppo- 

 site bank of the river near Duwaisat Mansur. From Shura to 

 Mosul none of the Kurd series was seen. 



r* 



