OF WESTERN EUROPE AND THE MEDITERRANEAN COASTS 
977 
in the adjacent sea, but occurring in the Raised Beach at Arzen, near Oran, and living 
on the Atlantic coast.'* 
Further to the south M. PoMELt describes the country as consisting of rolling hills 
of Cretaceous rocks in a sea of Quaternary drift composed of a loam more or less sandy, 
often of a red colour, and with but slight traces of bedding, though in places showing- 
intercalated beds of sand. Fossils are of very rare occurrence, and consist of fragments 
of land shells, including specimens of Zonites candidissimus, a shell still common in the 
district. This deposit forms in places low cliffs on the coast. Elsewhere it plunges 
under the sea. The Island of Karkenna, opposite Sfax, is entirely composed of it. 
Inland it rises, as a Rubble-drift might do, on the slopes of the hills to heights of 
60 metres. Its thickness is not given. Near Gabes a conglomerate, of which the 
materials are derived from the adjacent hills, caps the gypseous loam, but there 
is no mention of any breccias or of ossiferous fissures in that district. 
Tripoli .—Judging from a remark of M. Pomel, I should imagine that the Quater- ' 
nary loam of South Tunis ranged into Tripoli, and eastward toward the Lybian 
desert, but details are wanting. 
The evidence thus far on the North African coast, imperfect as it is, shows the 
persistence of the Raised Beaches ; while, as we proceed from west to east, we have to 
note the increasing rarity of Ossiferous Fissures so characteristic of the submerged 
areas. Though of frequent occurrence in the neighbourhood of Oran, and not 
uncommon in Algeria, there is no record of them in the provinces of Constantine 
and Tunis. Ordinary surface breccias continue, however, into the former province. 
These facts would seem to imply that, as on the coast of Asia Minor, the depth of 
the submergence decreased eastward, but closer investigation is needed (see Map). 
Egypt .—It may be a question whether the submergence extended beyond the 
Lybian desert. There is no well-defined evidence in proof, of it in Egypt, for the 
breccia described by General Pitt-Rivers near Thebes,^ and in which he found 
chert or flint implements, does not appear to be a Rubble-drift, though it possesses 
some of its characters. It is composed of debris of chert and limestone derived 
from the adjacent hills, cemented together by carbonate of lime. In this, worked 
chert flakes occurred at a depth of from 6 to 10 feet from the surface. That these 
implements are of great antiquity is evident from the fact that there are tombs 
excavated in the breccia which are supposed to be not less than 3500 years old. 
There is, however, nothing in the shape of the implements to indicate their age, and 
no organic remains of any sort were found. The hardness of the breccia is no 
criterion, for, as we have before mentioned, the recent beach on the coast of Syria 
* De la Marmora states that near Tunis and Carthage a “ Panchina,’’ like that at Leghorn, and about 
8 metres above the sea-level, is worked as a building-stone. 
t ‘Bull. Soc. Geol. de France,’ 3rd ser., vol. 6, p. 219, 1878. 
X ‘»Tourn Anthrop. Inst.,’ vol. 11, p. 38-2, 1881. 
MDCCCXCIJI.—A. 6 I 
