56 PASCOE: GEOLOGICAL NOTES ON MESOPOTAMIA. 



series. At the time of my visit the mines were, unfortunately, 

 flooded with water and the deposits not properly visible. The 

 occurrences in situ at the surface were very scanty and obscured ; 

 one of these occupied a locally contorted and faulted spot, and 

 from the very meagre evidence one gathered that the mineral was 

 extremely " pockety." It appears to be restricted to a length of not 

 more than 800 yards along the strike. In one small stream-course 

 I found a small mass of it, which might well have originated from 

 an isolated tree-trunk. Much of the material seems to be of the 

 nature of those curious and interesting carbo-petroleum minerals- 

 which pass under various names such as Torbanite. Albert ite, 

 Stellarite, Joadga, Kentucky Cannel Coal, Tasmanite, Manjak, etc., 

 and which have properties intermediate between those of coal and 

 petroleum. It evolves no bituminuous odour until burnt, and 

 has the low calorific value of about 500. It contains 10*9 — 13 per- 

 cent, of ash, 30-7 — 39 per cent, of fixed carbon. 57-9 — 43 per cent, of 

 volatile matter, and 0-0 — 5 per cent, of moisture.... 1 The working 

 of such deposits consists usually in taking what can be seen until it 

 is too thin or impure to pay. From the use made of it by the Turks 

 and from the number of buildings they erected round the mines, 

 one would judge the deposits to be of comparative importance, 

 especially in a country short of fuel. The dip of the strata at the 

 mines is high ; the beds twist a little locally, but the general 

 dip is about 55° in a N.E. direction. 



29th March, 1919. 



REPORT No. 12.— THE PETROLEUM INDICATIONS OF KANI QADIK 

 AND ITS NEIGHBOURHOOD, INCLUDING THOSE OF GIL. 



Maps. — 1 inch = 1 mile. PL 7. 



Introduction. 

 The Kani Qadir locality, some two marches north of Kifri, was 

 at the time of my visit somewhat inaccessible owing to bad roads. 

 I found it simplest to abandon my camp and camels and live 

 in Kurdish villages during the 8 or 9 days spent on the traverse, 

 taking a camp bed and bedding and a few tinned stores on two- 

 country donkeys. This area is, unfortunately, more interesting from 

 an academic than an economic point of view. The oil occurrences 

 lie along the north-eastern foot of the Jabal Nasaz. Little of a 



Analyses by the Railway Department, Baghdad, and by the Anglo-Persian Oil Co. 



