48 FASCOE: GEOLOGICAL NOTES ON MESOPOTAMIA. 



like hills south-east of Chavirgah. The reversed fault soon becomes 

 hidden by alluvium to the south-east. North of the Tauq Chai, 

 the outcrop of the Fars continues for about half a mile and then 

 ceases ; its dip is generally 26° in a north-east direction, but the 

 river section shows there is some contortion. At the extremity of 

 the outcrop, owing to the intervening fault, there is no swinging 

 round of the Kurd beds from one flank to the other, as there would 

 be in a normal pitching anticline. Here also the lower horizons of 

 the Kurd series are missing on the south-west and the Conglomeratic 

 stage approaches still nearer the Fars. There are no clear sections 

 in this Conglomeratic stage, but, from the shape of the hills and the 

 distribution of gravel over their tops, the boundary line has been 

 drawn as indicated ; the western part of the hills consists, as would 

 be expected, of massive light brown clay. The fault, therefore, 

 probably extends for some distance north-westwards, the displace- 

 ment or thrust apparently being greater north of the Tauq Chai 

 than to the south. The low mound-like hills of the Conglomerate 

 stage south of Chavirgah curve curiously towards the S.S.W., but 

 I came across no sections showing to what this is due. 



11th March, 1919. 



REPORT No. ii.— OIL IN THE NAFT DAGH OR JABAL KARACH 

 BETWEEN TUZ KHURMATU AND KIFRI. 



Maps. — 1 inch = 1 mile. PI. 8, with three sections. 



Introduction. 

 The area under report commences at the Quru Chai and embraces 

 the hilly ground between this and Kifri (Sallahiyah). In the north- 

 west this hilly ground forms a belt between two plains, but south- 

 eastwards the northerly plain ceases and the hilly tract becomes 

 continuous with that of Kani Qadir to the north. Many of the 

 footpaths marked on the map have fallen into disuse or do not 

 exist, and progress across the hills is most wearisome. An attempt 

 has been made to differentiate on the map the five phases or zones 

 of the Kurd series. These boundaries are by no means well-defined ; 

 in places they are frankly impossible to identify and have been 

 drawn partly by interpolation between areas where the division 

 is more recognisable. In spite of this, in the great majority of 

 traverses, they express an actual though gradual change from one 

 zone to the other. 



