Ministry of Finance, Egypt: Survey of Egypt. Geology of Egypt

Abstract

THIS is a study of the conditions of a region which, though easily accessible, is not known to more than a dozen visitors beyond its mere fringe. Of the thousands who go up and down the Nile, not one in a year goes a march into the high desert. The two hundred views here are a joy to any who know the glorious spaciousness and scenery of the wild, and the many questions that arise in trying to visualise its history. Eocene hills capped with crystallised calcite, or mountains with Tertiary basalt tops; the torrential gravels high up, with boulders which pounded the ostræa until it grew shells an inch thick; the collapsed strata dropped four hundred feet into caverns which fed the deep Nile gorge; all these are alluring prospects. The subjects discussed in this volume are naturally more physical than stratigraphic, as dealing with the surface conditions, and in several directions further experiment is needed to solve questions. After an outline of the past work by various nationalities, the variations of temperature are stated as leading to scaling of the rock, often under a difference of 50° C. The effect of this in flaking away architraves when ancient roofing is lost, might well be added.

Ministry of Finance, Egypt: Survey of Egypt. Geology of Egypt.

Vol. 1: The Surface Features of Egypt, their Determining Causes and Relation to Geological Structure. By Dr. W. F. Hume. Large 8vo. Pp. xliv + 408 + 122 plates. (Cairo: Government Publications Office, 1925.) P.T. 50 (10s. 3d.).