18 I'ASCOE: GEOLOGICAL NOTES ON MESOPOTAMIA. 



the right bank thereof ; there is a faint indication of the range 

 on the left bank. One or two miles north-west of the military post 

 some limestone produces some features of prominence, but the 

 range is not high, and further north-west becomes a mere broad 

 belt of high ground- — a series of scattered mound-like hills — till 

 some three miles E.S.E. of Qishlah, where the same limestone 

 commences to rise again and gives still more conspicuity to the 

 range. This portion of the range, though of no great altitude above 

 the plain, is fairly well defined and has been dissected by broad 

 ravines into bluffs and peaks of some distinction. It sinks again 

 further west, but another defined portion can be seen rising about five 

 miles W.N.W. of Qishlah. 



The structure is that of a simple anticline which, as usual, fol- 

 lows very closely the rise and fall of the ground, exposing Fars 

 beds flanked by the red clays and sandstones of the Kurd series. 

 Owing to the sketchy nature of the maps available the geological 

 boundaries delineated are somewhat diagrammatic, the only means 

 of locating them being in most cases a compass and watch ; that 

 of the Mesopotamian Alluvium is roughly the limit of Tertiary 

 exposures and has no tectonic significance. Exposures along the 

 base of the hills are obscure. 



Rocks. 



Fars series. — The lowest beds exposed are the Fars, consisting 

 of the usual beds of white gypsum, greenish and red clays, and thin 

 bands of limestone. One of the latter gives conspicuity to the 

 hills above the Oil Station, but further north-west sinks into the 

 featureless part of the range to within three miles of Qishlah, where 

 it again makes itself still more evident, and produces bold bluffs 

 and scarps, the highest point of which rises to 1,284 feet above sea- 

 level — about the same height as the highest point in the Jabal 

 Khanuqah. Not more than 500 feet of this series are exposed at 

 Qishlah and Qaiyarah, and less than this in the intervening country. 



Kurd series. — No clear exposures of the red clays and sand- 

 stones were noticed on the south-western flank, which is much 

 obscured by alluvium, but there is no doubt that this series under- 

 lies the latter deposit along this base of the rising ground. It is 

 fairly well seen on the north-eastern flank, and consists of the usual 

 red clays with selenite and reddish brown current-bedded saudstones, 



