JABAL HAMRIN AND JABAL MAKHUL. $ 



sudden, sharp and distinct ; above the boundary no sedimentary 

 gypsum bands nor fossiliferous limestone occur, the only points 

 in common being a slight resemblance between the clays. It is a line 

 along which one at* once suspects unconformity, and I feel con- 

 vinced that such will be found — perhaps very marked locally — in 

 other localities, and very probably in the area under description, 

 when maps of a larger scale are available. 



This Kurd series corresponds to the Upper Fars of Messrs. James, 

 Halse, Brown and others, but I prefer to give it no definite assign- 

 ation provisionally until more of it has been seen for the follow- 

 ing reasons. Dr. Pilgrim split up Loftus' " Gypseous Group " into 

 the Fars and Bakhtiyari, chiefly, I take it, because he found this 

 group to consist of a lower marine and an upper fluviatile deposit. 

 The Upper Fars of Dr. Pilgrim is a highly fossiliferous marine 

 deposit with a rich fauna. The red clay and sandstones of the 

 Kurd series of the Jabal Hamrin are unfossiliferous and have every 

 appearance of fluviatile deposits, and extended surveys will probably 

 show, that it should be classed as homotaxially equivalent to 

 Dr. Pilgrim's Bakhtiyari Sandstone series, which is described, more- 

 over, as being characterised by red clays at its base and conglo- 

 merates further up (see pp. 68-69). 



The best exposures of the beds is north of Ain Nukhailah where over 

 3,000 feet can be studied. They are also well seen, though in less 

 thickness, between the Jabal Makhul and the Jabal Khanuqah ; 

 the conglomeratic stage is not present here. When not protected 

 by sufficiently thick alluvial deposits, this series produces the most 

 broken kind of ground which is as bewildering to the eye as it is 

 wearisome to the feet, resembling in this and other respects the 

 Irrawadian of Burma. 



Pleistocene. — A high-lying conglomerate occurring in the vicinity 

 of the river, at heights varying from about 300 to 500 feet above 

 the Mesopotamian plain, is probably referable to the Pleistocene. 

 It is seen capping the end of the Jabal Hamrin above Fathah, while a 

 small patch occurs on the other side of the river on the Jabal Makhul. 

 On the hills above the Humr Plain south-east of Qal'at-al-Bini! 

 it forms a distinct plateau in places. It is not seen in the higher 

 parts of the Hamrin and Makhul ranges. It lies unconformable 

 upon the Fars and it is doubtful whether any 'perceptible dip is de- 

 monstrable. It is sometimes a tough conglomerate several feet thick 

 but is usually soft enough to disintegrate under the hammer and 



