Northern and Central Turkey. 257 



south of Djumaa, or more properly above Siribin, in the Rilo- 

 planina, a quarter of a league, and three-fourths of a league to 

 the east of the large and beautiful convent of Rilo. Crystal- 

 lized minerals occur in most of these limestones ; the plutonic 

 action having been complete, varieties of hornblende and augite, 

 tremolite, actinolite, green augite, garnet, idocrase, &c., have 

 been produced, as I shall afterwards mention more fully in 

 speaking of the granites. 



Turkey lies in the Mediterranean zone of Europe, so that 

 we could not expect to find there either the old coal deposit, or 

 the secondary series of rocks which characterize the middle 

 and N. W. part of Europe. Indeed, I only found my great 

 alpine and Mediterranean reddish arenaceous and calcareous 

 formation. The rocks consist of reddish or greyish, very mi- 

 caceous slates, sandstones like many of the trias, some conglo- 

 merates chiefly of the quartzose kind, rarely with fragments 

 of slates or older rocks, and compact or somewhat fetid lime- 

 stone, which occurs in three or four thick beds. I had occasion 

 to observe this formation on both sides of that vast dos d'dne, 

 formed by central Servia, Moesia Superior, and central Macedo- 

 nia ; but I could not discover any fossils in it. Between Novi- 

 bazar and Ipek, after having passed the clay-slates of Vrenie, 

 in the upper part of the Ibar and Kolaschin, we begin to find 

 quartzose conglomerate, and reddish or arenaceous slate, be- 

 tween Kaludra, Meleja, and Petzkij. At last, before commen- 

 cing the descent of the plain of the White Drina, the slate is 

 distinctly seen covered by compact limestone, then by quartzose 

 conglomerate, and afterwards by an immense deposit of compact 

 limestone, which constitutes the Kurilo-planina above Scher- 

 koles and to the east of the plain of the White Drina, as also 

 the high picturesque hills above Shetskevok and the high sum- 

 mits to the east of Breniatz ; in short, the greatest part of the 

 group of hills N. and W. of Ipek. The alternation of this 

 limestone with conglomerate, reminded me of a similar one in 

 the valley of the Enns near Lientz in Upper Styria. 



At Castoria, subordinate to a vast deposite of greyish com- 

 pact or semi-crystalline and dolomitic limestone, there occurs 

 an alternation of greyish-black and reddish slates, with quartz- 

 ose conglomerates. I do not know if these arenaceous rocks 



