Deposits of the Nile Delta

Abstract

IN a previous communication I referred to the probability that the lower portion of the Delta borings belongs to the Pleistocene and Isthmian deposit which underlies the modern Nile mud, and which has been recognised as an important formation by nearly all geologists who have studied the Nile Valley. I now propose to state shortly some objections to the generalisations of the Report on the Nile borings with reference to the causes assigned for the comparative purity of the waters of the Nile, and the character of its sediment, viz. that the former is due to its flowing through a rainless country, and that the latter is derived from the decay of rocks in this rainless area, and this decay produced not by “chemical agencies,” but by “mechanical forces,” namely, the “unequal expansion” of the constituent minerals under the influence of heat and cold, aided by “the force of the wind.”