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Proceedings of the Mad. Lit. Society [No. 38, 



sulphur mines of Khamir nearly opposite the centre of Kishin island, is held by 

 him from the king of Persia on payment of a certain annual sum- The salt is 

 associated, as usual, with deposits of crystallized gypsum. A variety of reddish 

 brown, and greenish chert clay altered apparently by volcanic heat, earthy and 

 crystallized sulphur are found on the island. Copper pyrites are said to occur. 



12. Ferruginous sandstone of the Persian mainland from a sandstone ridge 

 intervening between the city of Bunder Abbas (Gombroon) and the lofty 

 mountains of Gebel Shemil and the Koh-i-Ghinnon which constitute part of the 

 great mountain rampart of southern Persia. The sandstone forming the subor- 

 dinate ridge has generally much less iron in its composition than the speci- 

 men sent. It is usually of a loose friable texture and imbeds here and there 

 fragments of marine shells of existing species. It is overlaid by a loose pebble 

 conglomerate evidently an ancient sea beach, and rests on marls of the sali- 

 perons which in their turn repose on sandstone. / 



13. Arenaceous shell limestone imbedding existing species of marine shells 

 from Bassadore. 



14. Arenaceous shell limestone imbedding existing species of marine shells 

 from Beshire near Bushire. 



15. Indurated bitumen from bitumous spring of Nimrud near Mosul, 



16. Indurated bitumen from vicinity of flaming springs of Aba Goghiurd, 

 between Bagdad and Mosul, near the city of Kerkuh, the ancient Corcyra. 

 This specimen is more indurated, and crystalline than that from the springs at 

 Nimrud, the mineral issues in a liquid state. It is the " Naft-i-siyah," or 

 black Naphta, of the Persians, and was used as a cement in the boats 

 and buildings of the ancient Assyrians, Chaldeeans and Babylonians. 

 The bitumen, like lignites often contains fragments of bitumenized reeds, 

 grasses and leaves, indicating an almost similar vegetable origin. It is 

 used by the modems for much the same purposes as the ancients. 

 Medicinally it is applied as a balsam to the sore backs of camels, &c. Many of 

 the houses in the towns on the banks of the Tigris and Euphrates still have 

 their foundations protected by bitumeny cements from the damps which rise 

 up by capillary attraction from the saline alluvial soil. It is used in the inside 

 of water courses, flat terraces on the top of wells, &c, lining the round basket 

 or gopher boats still plying on the rivers of Mesopotamia as in the time of He- 

 rodotus and for paying the ordinary timber built boats. It is also used to burn 

 in lamps in a few places as at Kerkuh where my Kurdish host supplied me every 

 night with a large antique shaped Terra cotta lamp and with bitumen and sup- 

 plied with a roll of cotton rag for a wick. Both the specimens of indurated 

 bitumen now sent sink in water. Their colour brownish black. 



17. Aragonite from the marine limestone the bitumen springs near Aba Gog- 

 hiurd. 



18. Diluvial gravel from the plain of Babylon- This gravel is composed of 

 small rounded pebbles few exceeding an inch and a half in length, much rolled 

 and of the hardest poitions of the rocks from which they have been washed. A 



