this tract of country is ever subject to such sudden and extraordinary irruptions as these stones and gravel would seem to indicate. 15. From the rapid way in which the coarser stones decompose, when exposed to the air, there can be no doubt that the whole of the quartz sand found in this neighbourhood arises from the decomposition of these boulders, which may have been rounded by the action of water or may be in their original forms. 16. A sketch of the granite groups in the Barábar hills and of the granite peak, Kowá Dól, 365 feet high, in the same hills is given in Lieut. Sherwill's geological map of Behar. 17. The boulders there shown have evidently been rounded by the wear arising from exposure to the air and the ordinary drainage of the surface; and no doubt beds of alluvial matter must have been deposited to a considerable depth in their vicinity. These may have been either transported to their present position by a deluge, or may have been gradually carried there, or these stones and gravel may be portions of rocks once similar to the granite groups in the Barábar hills, which have been disintegrated in situ from the action of water or other causes. 18. Maccallock in his geological classification of rocks under the head of Alluvia, says, "In favorable circumstances of position, these disintegrated rocks remain in their places forming beds or masses of loose materials, consisting of larger fragments of the more solid parts mixed with the clay and sand resulting from the more complete decomposition of others. This occurrence takes place chiefly in granite." 19. The following is a list of specimens to be despatched by steamer. * Nos. 1, 2, 3. Stones taken from the top of the heap that has been placed along the side of the road for metalling. No. 4. A broken one from ditto in a state of decomposition. No. 5. Taken out of the earth on the 7th June 1849, with a portion of the clay in which these stones are found imbedded still adhering to it. No. 6. A stone taken from the bottom of a heap by road-side. A few of the small shingle or pebbles which are found imbedded amongst the large stones. A few of the bricks in which the stones *Sutledge, now daily expected. were in one place firmly imbedded, also a nail found at the same spot. A bag containing a specimen of the gravelly sand, which is being used for covering the surface of the road. No. 7. A specimen of sand dug out by the road side opposite the Dák Bungalow. No. 8. A specimen of sand from Dackinpura west of Meitápura and close to Bánkipura (Patna), where it is conjectured the river Soane once had its bed. Note on the Strata cut through in excavating for Coal in Wádi Araba, eastern desert of Egypt, by HEKEKYAN BEY. Communicated by Captain T. J. NEWBOLD. Note.-Wádi Araba is one of the transverse vallies that cross the limestone and sandstone formation of the eastern desert of Egypt, and which formed, in ancient times, the principal channels of commerce between the Nile and the Red Sea. It debouches on the rif (cultivable portion of the valley of the Nile) near Deir Biád, opposite Benisuef, in about Lat. N. 30° 50', and leads to the interesting monasteries of St. Anthony and St. Paul in the desert. The former is about 18 miles, and the latter about 9 miles distant from the Red Sea. The Máázi tribe of Arabs, regards the Wádi as belonging to their country, and set a high value on the springs of fresh water with which it and the subordinate Wadis abound. Wádi Araba literally signifies Valley of chariots, and hence has been supposed to have derived its name, from having been the road by which Pharoah with his chariots and horsemen, pursued the children of Israel to the Red Sea. Sir G. Wilkinson ridicules this idea, and asserts that the valley, which is of considerable breadth, has received its name from the plaustra or carts, that formerly carried provisions to the two monasteries. This, however, the Arabs in the vicinity denied to me, and the probability is that the name is of far more ancient date, and was given in consequence of its being the road by which stones from the ancient alabaster quarries in the vicinity were conveyed on cars to the Nile. In like manner the road to the Porphyry quarries from the Nile, was termed "Sikket el Arabiyeh.”—T. J. N. Section of Strata in Wádi Araba. An inclined plane open to the sky leads down to the shaft, with steps to the first water drain, the rope of which is provided with two buckets, one at each end, so that one bucket reaches the wooden platform of the stage below, when the other is at the superior stage. A stationary rope serves to prevent the bucket from swinging as it descends with its load; the rope being slightly held with one hand to steady it. The first stage in order of descent, contains three feet of alluvial matter; three feet of glauconic or greenish clay; twenty-four feet of yellowish clay with gryphœa virgulata in great quantities; one foot green grit or sandstone; six feet of a yellow ferruginous sandstone ;—all of which, except the alluvium, are ascribed to the chalk formation.* Seventy-five feet of plastic refractory clays, in regular layers of white, grey, blue, and yellow. Each layer is nearly three feet in thickness, the series being repeated in the same order to the entire depth of seventy-five feet. In all these clays are found a few gryphoa of different species, and some bivalves. At the depth of about one hundred and twelve feet the clays cease to appear. Below them there are, in order, six feet of white, marly, shell limestone, containing several species of the family Echinidae, and others of old date, three feet of marly, grey limestone-very compact and without shells; two feet of dark brownish clay, very pure. A series of refractory, white, grey and bluish clays reach down to the depth of 140 ft. below the surface, succeeded by fifteen feet of a blackish slaty clay;—all without fossils. Below this are seven feet of slaty clays of greyish hue, intercalated with grey, argillaceous, compact limestone containing two species of ammonites six inches in diameter, and traces of bituminized vegetable substances. One foot quartzose sandstone, compact, white,—with veins of a reddish and greyish colour, and fragments of bituminous plants ;-three feet of compact greyish limestones embedding small nodules of galena, and some bivalves (cardium);—one foot of psammitic sandstone, quartzose, white, compact ;-one foot of the same more compact,-fracture slaty,—colour blackish grey ;—one foot * From the bottom of the chalk formation down to 182 ft. the Bey ascribes the strata to the lias formation, but not with sufficient and satisfactory organic evi, dence.-T. J. N. same as above,—with nodules of iron pyrites; and six inches of blackish, compact, grey calcareous stone bring us down to the depth of 1694 ft. from the surface. A bed of psammitic, quartzose, compact, grey sandstone with slaty fracture, containing small blackish fragments of shells, indeterminable, as if steeped in bitumen, continues down to the depth of 177 ft. Two feet of an argillaceous sandstone, reticulated with veins of lamellary selenite; and three feet of argillaceous schists,-smoke-coloured and dark yellow, bring us down to the depth of 182 ft. After these we have two feet of a marly, slaty, grey-coloured clay with green spots having metallic lustrous surfaces ;-one foot of the same, but of a dark colour without spots, and traversed by a parallel bed of dolomite-ten inches thick, white, compact, and containing some bivalves of very old date and the teeth of the fish-squallus;-two feet of an argillo-quartzose psammite of a greyish colour; layers of a black slaty marl-slightly sandy extend down to 190 ft. below the surface. It contains carbonized plants and their impressions in great number, (monocotyledons). Three feet of quartzose white psammites; two feet of a bronze green clay;-one foot of a green marl with red spots and of a metallic splendour, and with carbonized monocotyledons, and their impressions; -one foot of greenish yellow psammite also with monocotyledons; -two feet of black bituminous marl, containing many carbonized, monocotyledonous plants;-one foot of white, argillaceous psammite; -one foot of a black slaty clay, containing lignite infiltrated with iron pyrites ;- -a foot of black slate with impressions of plants, iron pyrites, and traces of carbonate of copper;—an inch layer of grey dolomite with minute, unknown fossil shells ;- -one foot of black marl with red spots containing nodular iron pyrites ;-six inches of whitish grey, and very compact dolomite with veins of crystallized barytes, and here and there, nests of lignite.· One foot psammitic grit,-with small grains of chlorite ;-one foot of black slaty clay, with great numbers of small unknown shells ;-two feet of black, slaty clay,-two feet of quartzose psammite of a greenish grey colour;-three feet of white, compact, quartzose psammite ;one foot of black clay, with vegetable impressions ;-one foot of violetcoloured marl with green spots;-one foot of a greyish dolomitic limestone ;-one foot of marl, with pistachio green spots ;-one foot of white psammitic sandstone ;-one foot of black clay with impressions, and bituminized plants ;-four feet of schistose black clay, with impressions, and large nodules, or cakes, of argillaceous dolomite of a grey colour;-one foot of green psammite with bivalves, belonging to the genus terebratula (?) The foregoing beds carry us down to about 223 ft. below the surface. To them succeed grey clays with impressions, alternating with layers of a friable dolomite, in which small nodules of galena are perceptible; -one foot of a compact, grey limestone resembling muschelkalk ;-two feet of very fine-grained psammite;-three feet of a schistose black clay with impressions of plants which descend down to 236 ft. being divided by pure, fine, greyish tablets of clay. One foot of black, bituminous slate,-with impressions much carbonized, covers a bed of lignite coal one foot thick, formed of the large stems of Palm, of the genus Cicas, of furze, and other plants in confused masses. The whole of this vegetable matter is impregnated with iron pyrites: under it lies one foot of clay slate similar to that which covers it ;-two feet of argillaceous blackish grey slate-containing few impressions, and large nodules of iron pyrites in groups;-two feet of grey, argillaceous psammite. A sandy, grey, slaty clay, containing large cakes of a yellowish spongy dolomite, in which are seen small globules of galena, and pyritous iron, extend down to 259 ft., when there is an undulating series of depositions of a very black, splendid, compact, bituminous lignite devoid of pyrites-leaving ashes of a greyish white colour after combustion. Below it is a white, compact psammitic sandstone, in which the shaft terminates. The total depth of the excavation, calculating from the surface of the alluvium, is 270 feet. |