Let us finally examine the series of more or less parallel faults stated to exist between the island and the northern shore of the lake, and on the mainland to the north and south of Dimê. Dr. Blanckenhorn publishes a detailed section (op. cit., fig. 2., taf. XIV) showing the positions of these step faults and their effect on the various strata through which they cut. Fortunately, in this neighbourhood the stratigraphical succession is well exposed and the presence or absence of faults become matters of easy determination. The sequence of beds from south to north is normal and uninterrupted and our interpretation of the area is shown in the accompanying sections (Plates XIX, XXII, and fig. 4). We have no hesitation in saying that such faults as those shown on Blanckenhorn’s section do not exist. Their insertion appears to be the outcome of an error in the correlation of strata at the three points Abshawai, Geziret el Qorn and Dimê. The bed capping the island is not identical with that forming the plain to the north of Dimê, although shown to be such on the section under discussion. In a later publication[32] Blanckenhorn admits being in error in his correlation of the different beds in the localities in question and completely withdraws his former statements that the depression owes its existence to fracture and subsidence. The faults shown on his detailed section from Abshawai to Qasr el Sagha are admitted to be non-existent and in this retraction we may presumably include the remainder of the faults described by the same author, as the evidence for them is of a still less satisfactory nature. In a wind-swept desert area like the Fayûm the slightest dislocations are as a rule markedly obvious, and faults of any magnitude could scarcely escape detection. Over the greater part of the region every bed is laid bare on the surface and can be minutely examined; while the marked irregularity of the escarpments afford sections cut through the different series in every direction. Some areas, however, are covered with superficial deposits, which more or less effectually obscure the underlying rocks; for instance, on the east side a large part of the central floor is hidden by the cultivated alluvium and by the water of the lake; in the south a considerable proportion of the floor of Wadi Rayan is buried under accumulations of blown sand; and again large areas on the north, west, and south-west sides are obscured by a superficial covering of loose gravel. But as already mentioned, there is no reason to suppose that faults of any importance exist within the areas thus partly obscured. The cultivated lands and the Birket el Qurûn do not occupy low areas produced by faulting but, as shown above, owe their positions entirely to the original northerly dip of the strata and to subsequent erosion. [Sidenote: Numerous small faults effects local.]