COUNTRY BETWEEN MOSUL AND QUWAIr! 33 



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The Nimrud (Calah) seepages. 

 Finally there are the seepages of taiiy oil in the Shur Darah 

 stream immediately south-east of Calah or Nimrud. I found flat 

 cakes of asphalt inside the city of Nimrud in two places, but they 

 may have been carried there. As no Tertiary rocks are exposed in 

 this area, which is hidden beneath alluvium, it is difficult to locate a 

 test-boring. As the Fars beds do occur to the N.N.W. and were not 

 observed to the S.S.E., perhaps the former direction is the more 

 promising, between Salamiyah and Nimrud. As will be seen from 

 the map (pi. 3), there is a low dome of the Kurd series south-east of 

 Nimrud, pitching towards that city, so that the seepages are more 

 likely to belong to a dome partly inside the city or north-west 

 of it. It seems desecration to suggest it but the city of Nimrud 

 may not improbably form part of an oil-field of no small importance. 

 Perhaps a more detailed and prolonged survey on a larger scale 

 map might bring out data for guidance with respect to the Nimrud 

 seepages which are fairly copious : there is the usual odour of 

 hydrogen sulphide. 



Nimrud (Calah). 

 Several dressed slabs still remain inside the walls of Nimrud, 

 some carved with figures or scroll-work, others bearing inscriptions. 

 Most of these blocks consist of gypsum, and in one case of alter- 

 nating layers of gypsum and marly limestones. A figure of a man's 

 head had suffered considerably from the weather, but the freshly 

 exposed inscriptions were sharp and distinct. Dressed blocks of 

 limestone, also from the Fars, are seen, and one of yellowish sand- 

 stone perhaps from the Kurd series. 



Sulphur and bituminous earth at Judaidah. 

 Between the Monastery of Mar Behnam and the village of Judai- 

 dah is a small exposure of Fars rocks, succeeded southwards by sand- 

 stone belonging to the Kurd series dipping at 15° a little W. of S. 

 This outcrop occurs on the top of a low hill about f mile south and a 

 little east of Judaidah. In the Fars is a small pool of water, eight 

 or nine feet in diameter, in which hydrogen sulphide bubbles up in 

 small quantity ; a little of this becomes oxidised yielding free 

 sulphur. Bituminous earth occurs round the bank of the pool. 

 It is known as the ' ; Leper's Pool " and is believed to be the spot 

 which the Abbot of Shaikh Sharmatli struck with his staff in order 



