Geology of the Island of Rhodes. 467 



Near Melona and Archangilo fossils may be procured in abun- 

 dance, but the species are grouped ; and about a mile north of the 

 latter place the author found on the end of a low ridge which pro- 

 jected into the plain, a thin stratum of calcareous sand containing 

 numerous fossil leaves, also marine shells and an ichthyolite. The 

 leaves resembled those of the olive, oleander, and plane tree, now 

 growing on the island. 



In the neighbourhood of Koskinou and Rhodes fossils are also very 

 abundant, especially in the upper deposits. Mr. Spratt gives the 

 following list of the strata exhibited in a hill near the town of Rhodes, 

 and he says that it affords a type of the whole of the adjacent depo- 

 sits, with the exception of the distribution of the fossils, which are 

 sometimes wanting, sometimes plentiful, in the same bed. 



Top. — Calcareous conglomerate, containing Turbo rugosa in great 

 abundance. 



Laminated marls in which fossils are sometimes numerous, but at 

 this locality they are wanting. 



Coarse sand, inclosing species of Pecten, Turbo, Echini, and corals 

 in great confusion and seldom perfect. 



Fine sand from which the author procured only a species of 

 Venus. 



Marls without fossils, at this point sometimes indurated. 



Greenish sand. 



Fine brownish sand with numerous fossils. 



Total thickness about 300 feet. 



In the deposits along the north shore Mr. Spratt procured no fos- 

 sils, though he very closely examined Mount Paradiso and Philielmo. 

 The strata in these hills and in that overhanging Tholo and Soronee 

 dip at a considerable angle to the north j and exhibit the greatest 

 visible thickness of the tertiary deposits, Paradiso, the highest, having 

 an altitude of 920 feet ; but in the basin of Archangilo they attain 

 nearly the same vertical dimensions. 



The tertiary strata are apparently continuous along the north coast, 

 so that no defined margin between the supposed western lacustrine 

 deposits and those of decidedly marine origin is indicated by an inter- 

 vening ridge or formation of a different character. The long ridge 

 of Skathee is considered however by the author a natural boundary 

 between the basin of Palatshah and the eastern deposits, but he was 

 unable to determine if the strata around Katavyah with which it is 

 believed to be connected, contain marine or freshwater shells. 



There are also in several parts of the island elevated shingle beds 

 of considerable thickness ; some of them, composed entirely of rounded 

 limestone pebbles, occurring on the sides of the calcareous moun- 

 tains ; while others consist of limestone and volcanic materials, and 

 others again wholly of volcanic fragments. These accumulations, Mr. 

 Spratt says, are evidently of two epochs, one anterior to the great 

 volcanic sera, and the other intermediate between it and the tertiary 

 series, the sands and marls of that group being in several places 

 around them. 



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