54 IWSCOE: GEOLOGICAL NOTES OX MESOPOTAMIA. 



backs of donkeys and mules to Tuz Khurmatu where it is subjected 

 to a crude distillation in 5 or C stills, each consisting of a retort and 

 spiral condenser. The two extreme wells on the line are a little 

 under a mile apart, but further south-east there is a little bituminous 

 gypsum in one spot and in another an emanation of sulphuretted 

 hydrogen accompanied by bituminous earth. Oil indications are by 

 no means confined to the subsidiary fold, but are found in the 

 main anticline, where outcropping bands of gypsum and limestone 

 are seen to be bituminous for many yards in the south-western 

 face of the hills in the vicinity of the gorge. 



Some three miles north-west of the Kurah Chai, in the upper- 

 most horizons of the north-eastern limb of the Fars, is the sulphur 

 spring of Gharrah. This is an emanation of sulphuretted hydrogen 

 accompanied as usual by bituminous earth. In the plain at the 

 foot of the hills immediately opposite this spot, a long trench and a 

 round pit have been dug, evidently on natural seepages, since they 

 both contain tarry oil floating on water. There are a few unimport- 

 ant bituminous beds outcropping between this spot and Gharrah. 



The seepage in the hills opposite Oniki Imam, 8 or 9 miles E.S.E. 

 of Kifri was not visited. 



Prospects of Borinq. — The prospects of obtaining oil by boring 

 cannot be called attractive, but the steady yield from the pits 

 at Palkanah, though very small, arouses the question whether 

 something more could not be made of this and possibly other spots 

 along the fold. The anticline is not only strongly overfolded and 

 fold-faulted, but is a tightly compressed, considerably contorted 

 isocline. Possibly other reversed strike faults — which are never 

 easy to recognize; — are more frequent than a preliminary survey 

 would indicate : that they do exist is shown in the Kifri and Aq Su 

 sections. We may at once disabuse our minds of any hope that 

 this could ever prove a rich field. What I have said regarding the 

 Kirkuk area applies still more disadvantageously to this anticline. 

 The most that could be expected is a very narrow field with capricious 

 oil pools tapped by rapidly declining wells. A remunerative well 

 struck in such an area is sometimes more a curse than a blessing, 

 as it raises false hope and leads to further expensive experiments. 



In the absence of any undisturbed spot with favourable structure, 

 one would be unwilling to locate any test boring far from the natural 

 occurrences. In making a location for a deep bore I should be 

 inclined to assume that the axial plane of the main anticline is a 



