34 PASCOE: GEOLOGICAL NOTES ON MESOPOTAMIA. 



to produce the water in which he cured the girl martyr Sara of her 

 leprosy and baptised both her and her brother Behnam. Although 

 the exudation of hydrogen sulphide is small, the margin of the pool 

 is three or four feet high and steep enough to enable the gas to con- 

 centrate on the surface of the water in still weather. Before the War, 

 one of the monks of Behnam, while bathing in this pool, was rendered 

 unconscious by the gas and was drowned ; a second monk, in trying 

 to extricate the body, also succumbed to its poisonous effect. There 

 is a speculative chance of obtaining oil by boring near this area. 

 As the structure is hidden beneath alluvium and I had not time to 

 make an exhaustive search for other exposures, I am unable to advise 

 respecting the most suitable spot for operations. Whether it is 

 a small isolated dome with its centre occupying the summit of the 

 hill, or whether it is part of a larger north-westwardly continuing 

 anticlinal fold, is possibly determinable by exhaustive search with the 

 aid of an accurate large-scale map. Its possibilities should be borne 

 in mind while development proceeds elsewhere. The physical 

 features, unimposing as they are, follow the normal N.W. — S.E. 

 trend. There is a range known as the Qarah Tappah or Jabal 

 Kharabat, extending N.W. to S.E. near the village of Kabarli. 

 In the portion visited no Fars beds were exposed, the range con- 

 sisting of an anticline of the Kurd series, with gentle dips in 

 each flank, and pitching from near Kabarli very gently south-east- 

 wards. The incipient root-like concretionary structure noticed in 

 the sandstone on the north-west flank of the Jabal Hamrin, was 

 well seen here. The south-western edge of this range is covered 

 with gravel, but whether any of the Conglomeratic stage of the 

 Kurd series is present, could not be determined. The |-inch map 

 for geological work is inadequate in the extreme and unfor- 

 tunately often misleading. 



Mar Behnam. 



The Monastery of Behnam contains some beautifully intricate 

 scroll-work dating from the 4th century A.D., and carved on lime- 

 stone, which I think better illumination will show to be carefully 

 selected blocks from the Fars series. Gypsum is also used struc- 

 turally and is occasionally ornamented, but delicate carving has been 

 discriminated restricted to the harder limestone. 



3rd Fehuanj, 1919. 



