Hills, capped with dark hard ferruginous silicified grits and puddingstone, were met with in the extreme south-west extension of the depression; these deposits, which will be referred to more fully later, considered in conjunction with the similar beds occurring within the oasis of Baharia, and in the hills of Gar el Hamra, on the plateau immediately to the north-east of that depression, are of considerable interest and importance, especially in connection with the question of the position of the early rivers which in Eocene and later times brought down quantities of trees and animals, the remains of which are so abundant throughout the later Fayûm deposits. [Sidenote: Jebel el Qatrani and escarpments north of the Birket el Qurûn.] The boldest part of the region is the area lying between the Birket el Qurûn and the summit of the depression to the north. All three lines of cliff are here high and precipitous, and the uppermost escarpment, well known by the name of Jebel el Qatrani, formed of a highly coloured series of sandstones and clays and capped for a distance of many kilometres by a thick bed of hard black basalt, is of a most striking character. The eastern extremity of Jebel el Qatrani is perhaps the most conspicuous point in the whole region; here the two conical black basalt-capped cliff-outliers, known as Widan el Faras, stand side by side, and from their summits the eye commands the whole region from the pyramid of Lahûn on the one side, across Rayan to the south, up to the extreme limits of the depression to the south-west. The rim of Jebel el Qatrani has a fairly constant level of about 340 metres above the sea. From Widan el Faras the escarpment trends northwards for a few kilometres before again resuming an easterly direction, which is continued till the well-marked bluff of Elwat Hialla is reached. From this summit the pyramids of Dashûr, Saqâra and Giza are visible to the north, as well as Cairo and the Nile Valley southwards, backed by the bluffs on the Eastern desert limestone plateau. To the south the isolated peaks of Garat el Gindi and Garat el Faras form conspicuous landmarks on the more or less open plain which stretches to Tamia and the limits of the Fayûm cultivated lands. Eastwards the escarpments continue in a broken irregular manner; the upper ones are gradually lost in an undulating plain, while the lower eventually join those forming the northern part of the ridge separating the Fayûm from the Nile Valley. * * * * * [Footnote 6: For fuller details of the cultivated lands, water-supply, etc., of the Fayûm, the reader is referred to the excellent description by Sir Hanbury Brown in his work _The Fayum and Lake Moeris_, London, 1892.] [Footnote 7: “The Lake of the Horns,” so called from the narrow horn-like promontories which jut out into the lake on the north side. Views of the lake are shown in Plates I, IV, XVI.]