184 7.J 



Visit to Mount Sinai. 



51 



tertiary limestone and more recent deposits just described, can be 

 guessed at. 



It is evident that the granite must be of more recent origin than 

 the hypogene schists, the strata of which I observed in the vicinity 

 of Mount Sinai to have undergone great disturbance thrown on their 

 edges and altered by it. The porphyries are more recent than the 

 granite which they penetrate, and the basaltic greenstone penetrates 

 both the porphyries and the granite. 



Next in order of superposition to the hypogene schists comes the 

 sandstone which rests on them in slightly inclined and unconformable 

 strata ; it marks the era of a subsequent period of disturbance but 

 less violent, and was deposited while the granite peaks either formed 

 inequalities in the ocean's bed or appeared as small islet points just 

 above its surface, with which it rose to the heights we now see it.. 

 The continuity of the sandstone strata apparently suffered from 

 inundation. 



The tertiary limestone from its usually undisturbed horizontal 

 stratification appears to have been elevated slowly without any vio- 

 lent paroxysms of plutonic or volcanic energy like the more recent 

 formations. Its fossils have not been yet scientifically described, but 

 in general character they resemble those of the Egyptian tertiary 

 limestones. The mineral character of the rock too, is much the same. 

 A minute examination of these limestone strata may give groups of 

 more than one epoch. 



In the sandstone I could discover no fossils to afford any indi-- 

 cation of its age. 



From Burckhardt's account of the volcanic rocks near Shurm no 

 clue to their relative age could be gained. 



Metallic Ores The great scantiness of metallic ores and minerals 

 and Minerals, j^q^ jj^ peninsula of Mount Sinai but in Egypt 

 and Arabia is a remarkable feature. Iron ore, the most useful of all, 

 occurs in very small quantities though it is seen in a state of diffusion 

 strongly colouring the sandstone rocks. I picked up a few nodules 

 of a poor hematite, in the neighbourhood of Mount Sinai, but I am 

 not aware that the Arabs ever reduce this or any other iron ore to a 

 metallic state. Their weapons and few iron utensils being generally 

 purchased at Suez, Cairo, or from native craft touching at Tor. 

 Mr. Leider showed me in his collection at Cairo, a specimen of 



