Abstract
AMONG the specimens presented to the Department of Mineralogy of the British Museum (Natural History) is a collection of about three hundred rock and mineral specimens, made by Mr. H. St. J. B. Philby, between Mecca and Mukalla, during his last journey of exploration through West and South -West Arabia. The collection is not only of academic interest. There is evidence of the presence of oil in the richly bituminous limestones and oil-soaked shales outcropping in the neighbourhood of Shabwa, and farther north, near Jizan, Mr. Philby collected specimens of haematite, an important iron-ore. This mineral is also present in several quartz-reefs, of which he brought back samples. By his careful and complete field-records of each occurring type, Mr. Philby has brought to light a number of salient features in the geological structure of a region previously unknown to Europeans, and has made it possible to prepare an approximate geological map of the region through which he travelled.
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Acquisitions at the British Museum (Natural History). Nature 141, 197 (1938). https://doi.org/10.1038/141197c0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/141197c0