182 Dr Boue*s Geographical and Geological 



The southern base of the Haemus is remarkable for the exu- 

 berance of its vegetation, consisting of gardens of roses, jas- 

 mine, and wild lilac, vineyards and forests of all kinds of fruit 

 trees, but without the olive tree, the Anis or the Lepleh (a kind 

 of Dolichos lablah). Tschipka, Eski-Sagra, and Islivne, are 

 truly delightful abodes. The adjacent plain, however, is des- 

 titute of trees, and consists chiefly of fields under cultivation, 

 and pasture-grounds which are partly marshy, with a black soil. 

 This alluvial and tertiary plain extends to the chain which runs 

 along the Black Sea, as also the Sea of Marmora and the Ar- 

 chipelago. On its elevated borders near Eski-Sagra, there are 

 some small deposits of fresh-water limestone. Primary alluvial 

 matter fills up the angle of the basin between the Rhodopus 

 and the Balkan, and it is on this spot that rice is chiefly culti- 

 vated. In other parts, the shores of this tertiary gulf have 

 been covered by fossiliferous and coralline limestones, clay, 

 sand, and sandstones ; as along the sea of Marmora at Constan- 

 tinople, around Kirklisse, between that town and Bunar-His- 

 sar, between Serai, Tschataltscha, and Tschorlu, &c. The 

 reddish-brown smectic clay, from which the Turkish pipes 

 are manufactured without being exposed to the fire, also belongs 

 to the tertiary formation, and is probably derived from gra- 

 nitic or recent igneous rocks. This clay occurs in the basin of 

 Adrianople, as well as near Rutschuk in Bulgaria, near Sophia, 

 at Komavitza near Nisha, &c. The best pipes are made at 

 Belgrade, Nisha, Sophia, Rutschuk, Adrianople, Lule-Burgas, 

 and SiHvri. 



In the Plain north of Adrianople^ we occasionally meet with 

 small groups of isolated hills composed of trachyte, as between 

 Jeni-Sagra and Janboli, and near Karabunar. In the north- 

 east portion of the tertiary basin of Romelia, the augite por- 

 phyry forms a very extensive undulating plateau ; extending 

 from the base of the Balkan, north of Aidos, to the Gulf of 

 Burgas, and in a southerly direction to a different Karabunar 

 (hlack fountain) situated on the Curu. In the wild and wooded 

 country between Aidos and Burgas, there is a hot sulphureous 

 spring, which is probably connected in some way with the fo- 

 cus of the eruptions, which formerly occurred in an ancient 

 gulf between the Balkan and the chain on the southern shores 

 of the BlacJc Sea, 



