896 Geological Society, 



pleasure in alluding to the labours of Mr. H.E.Strickland and' 

 Mr. Hamilton in Asia Minor*. These gentlemen first examined the 

 neighbourhood of Constantinople, and found on both sides of the 

 Thracian Bosphorus an ancient group of fossiliferous strata, con- 

 sisting of schist, sandstone, and limestone. From the character of 

 the fossils it is inferred that these rocks may probably be the equi- 

 valents of the upper transition or Silurian strata of England. The 

 shells belong to the brachiopodous genera Spirifer, Producta, and 

 Terebratula, with which the remains of corals and Crinoidea were 

 associated, and fragments of a Trilobite. 



The rarity of any fossiliferous deposits of higher antiquity than 

 the old red sandstone in any of the countries bordering the Mediter- 

 ranean, or indeed to the south of the Alps and Pyrenees, lends con- 

 siderable interest to this observation. In their way through France, 

 our travellers examined the well-known region of extinct volcanos 

 in Auvergne, and afterwards found a counterpart to it in the Cata- 

 cecaumene, a district in Asia known by that name in the time of 

 Strabo, from its burnt and arid appearance. Some of the volcanos 

 in Asia are of very modern appearance, although no notice of their 

 eruptions falls within the limits of history or tradition. The vol- 

 canic hills rise partly through lacustrine limestone in the Valley of 

 the Hermus, and partly cover the slope of the schistose hills which 

 hound it to the south. There are about thirty older cones, worn by 

 time, and of which the craters are efiaced or only marked by a slight 

 depression; and three newer cones, which preserve their characters 

 unaltered, the craters being perfectly defined and the streams of 

 lava still black, rugged, and barren. Here, as in the country of 

 corresponding structure in France, we find streams of lava following 

 the course of existing valleys, and yet frequently cut through by 

 rivers. We find also a tertiary freshwater formation, sometimes 

 resembling chalk with flints, like that of Aurillac in France, and 

 forming detached hills capped with basalt, while more modern lavas 

 have flowed at the base of the same hills. The extent of this ana- 

 logy will be best appreciated by those who compare Mr. Strick- 

 land's drawings with Mr. Poulett Scrope's masterly illustrations of 

 the French volcanic region. 



The countries watered by the rivers Meander and Cayster are de- 

 scribed as having a simple geological structure. There are granitic 

 rocks, with saccharine marble, there are also hippurite limestone and 

 schist, and tertiary deposits unconformable to these, besides igneous 

 rocks of various ages. The tertiary formations are chiefly lacustrine, 

 and occur in nearly every large valley. They are composed of hori- 

 zontal beds of calcareous marl and white limestone, in which are 

 layers and nodules of flint; they also consist of sandstone, sand, and 

 gravel. 



The only representative of the secondary rocks of Europe is 

 termed by Mr. Strickland "hippurite limestone", which appears to 



[* An abstract of Mr. Strickland's paper has appeared in our present vo- 

 lume, p. 68. — Edit.] 



