History, SfC in the European Provinces of Turkey. 415 



Bat the deluge of Deucalion and Pyrrha our author considers 

 as subsequent to the draining of the valley, and to have been 

 caused by the stopping of the course of the river, which now 

 communicates with the sea. 



Igneous rocks. — Turkey has examples of nearly every kind 

 of igneous rock excepting basalt, but quartzous porphyry is 

 rare. Granite is seen in the centre of the country, and in 

 many places contiguous to the Black Sea. Protogene or 

 talcose granite is occasionally met with, and more rarely syen- 

 ite. Serpentine is a very abundant rock in the chalk both 

 in the west of Turkey and likewise in Servia. But the largest 

 eruptions of serpentine lie betwixt Prisren and Scutari, and 

 in the Pindus, where it is accompanied with euphotide. 



Diorite (the ophite of the Pyrenees) is only met with in Al- 

 bania, where it pierces the cretaceous slates, and produces 

 sundry changes in them, hardening and turning them into 

 jasper. 



Trachytic rocks are very abundant, especially in Macedo- 

 nia and Thrace. The millstone porphyry of Hungary is seen 

 in the mountains of Karatova. 



Dr Boue distinguishes the trachytes from the syenitic por- 

 phyries often associated with them, regarding the former as 

 suba-real, the latter as partly submarine. 



Pyroxcnic porphyry is found in great abundance at the foot 

 of the Balkan, north of Aidos, accompanied with a breccia. 



In High Mcesia, near Sophia, the rocks resemble much 

 those of the Val de Fassa in the Tyrol. This porphyry tra- 

 verses the middle and upper tertiary formation, whilst the 

 trachytes appear somewhat more ancient, beginning at the 

 epoch of the chalk, and terminating at that of the nearest 

 tertiary. 



The diorites and serpentines traverse the ancient rocks, and 

 especially the chalk ; whilst the granites appear to have been 

 ejected at the end of the ancient primary epoch. The continu- 

 ance of igneous action in Turkey seems to be evinced by the 

 great abundance of thermal waters which occur at the foot of 

 most of the chains. They almost all contain sulphuretted 

 hydrogen. 



Thus on the great scale Turkey may be regarded as formed 



