PROCEEDINGS OF SOCIETIES. 93 



great portion of its surface is conjectured to have been covered ; and on the 

 evidences of progressive drainage of the waters." 



April 5. — Mr. Greenough, V. P., in the chair. — Mr. Roy's paper was con- 

 cluded. — The next paper was " On the Geology and neighbourhood of Smyrna," 

 by Hugh E. Strickland, Esq. The vicinity of Smyrna consists of limestone, 

 and greenish slates, containing Hippurites, lacustrine limestone, marls, and 

 trachytic rocks. The Hippurite limestone and schist form considerable tracts, 

 both to the north and south of the bay of Smyrna, constituting Mounts Sipylus, 

 Tartali, and Corax. In some localities it consists of grey limestone, more or 

 less associated with black and greenish schists, but in others it is composed 

 almost solely of the latter. The lacustrine deposits constitute an extensive table 

 land, ranging south from Smyrna, and to the north of the bay — the southern 

 base of Mount Sipylus. Mr. Strickland is of opinion, that they were accumu- 

 lated in a basin, bounded principally by the hills of hippurite limestone. The 

 table land is composed chiefly of white or yellowish limestone, sometimes re- 

 sembling chalk, at other times the compact, secondary limestone of the Ionian 

 Islands, and contains nodules and layers of black flint, with quartz resinite. 

 White and greenish marls are interstratified with the limestone and extensive 

 beds of gravel, especially towards the margin of the basin. The beds are 

 generally horizontal, but in some places, when near the trachyte, they are inclined. 

 The shells found by the author belonged entirely to fresh-water genera, but in the 

 deposit at the foot of Mount Sipylus he discovered a rich store of vegetable re- 

 mains, in the highest state of preservation, and consisting of leaves of about 

 twelve species, which belonged to the genera Laurus, Nerium, Oka, Salix, 

 Quercus, and Tamarix. — Trachyte. This volcanic rock Mr. S. ascertained to be 

 more recent than the lacustrine deposits, because, in the plain of Pedikeui, it 

 overlies the fresh- water limestone ; and because no pebbles of it occur in the 

 alternating beds of gravel. The trachyte is principally porphyritic and homo- 

 geneous ; but it sometimes contains numerous angular blocks and fragments of 

 black porphyritic trachyte, much harder than the general body of the rock ; and 

 near the ford of the Meles it contains a mass of quartzose conglomerate. In 

 some localities the trachyte splits into slabs, from a foot to an inch thick, and 

 the cross fracture exhibits stripes of various colours, parallel to the planes of 

 cleavage. These layers are occasionally accumulated to the thickness of 100 

 feet, and are traceable laterally for as many yards. — The paper concluded with 

 some general observations on the changes produced in the features of the country 

 by the eruption of the trachyte, and the drainage of the lake in which the 

 lacustrine fonnations were deposited. 



For the above succinct report of Mr. Strcikland's interesting paper, we are 



