178 Mr Whewell's Address to the 



produced after the coal-measures; — and those which occur along the 

 shores of the Forth, -which occur in the higher coal-measures. 



2. Foreign (South European and Trans-European) Geology. — In the 

 survey of the progress of our labours which I offered to your notice last 

 year, I stated, that, in proceeding beyond the Alps, and I might have 

 added the Pyrenees, we no longer find that multiplied scries of strata, 

 so remarkably continuous and similar, when their identity is properly 

 traced, with which we have been familiar in our home circuit. Yet the 

 investigations of Mr Hamilton and Mr Strickland appear to shew, that 

 we may recognise, even in Asia Minor, the great formations, occupying 

 the lowest and highest positions of the scries, which are well marked by 

 fossils, namclj' the Silurian and Tertiary formations ; and also an inter- 

 mediate formation corresponding in general with the secondary rocks of 

 the north, but not as yet reduced to any parallelism with them in the 

 order of its members. Besides these sedimentary rocks, vi^ this, as in most 

 other countries, there are found vast collections of igneous rocks of va- 

 rious kinds, which interrupt and modify, and may mask and overwhelm 

 the fossiliferous strata. A paper has been communicated to us by Mr 

 Hamilton, " On a part of Asia Minor," namely, the country extending 

 from the foot of Hassan Dagh to the great salt lake of Toozla, and thence 

 eastwards to Csesarea and Mount Argseus, and thus occupying a part of 

 the ancient Cappadocia. 



It appears that in this district the igneous rocks occupy a large portion 

 of the surface, and the sedimentary strata which are associated with these 

 arc not easily identified with those which occur in countries already exa- 

 mined. The district examined by Mr Hamilton contains a limestone be- 

 longing to the vast calcareous lacustrine formation of the central part of 

 Asia Minor, and beneath this, a system of highly-inclined beds of red 

 sandstone, conglomerates and marls, which are perhaps connected with 

 the saliferous dejiosits of Pontus and Galatia ; but which could not be sa- 

 tisfactorily compared with the beds of the south of Europe, for want of 

 the occurrence of organic remains. In only one instance did Mr Hamil- 

 ton observe the trace of organic bodies in the sandstone; these were im- 

 pressions resembling fucoids, and similar to those found in the Alpine 

 limestone near Trieste. Mr Hamilton ascended to the summit of Mount 

 Argseus, which had not previously been reached by any traveller, which 

 rises abruptly from the alluvial plain of Csesarea to the height of 13,000 

 feet. 



We have another contribution to the geology of the countries exterior 

 to the Alps and P^ renees in Mr Sharpe's memoir on the geology of Portu- 

 gal. He has examined with great care the neighbourhood of Lisbon, and 

 has traced the superposition of the strata, naming the most conspicuous 

 of them from the places in which they are well exhibited. His series (ex- 

 clusive of igneous rocks) consists of San Pedro limestone (which rests 

 upon the granite), slate-clay and shale, Espichel limestone, red sand- 



