1864. | Jenkins on Brackish-water Fossils of Crete. 413 
BRACKISH-WATER FOSSILS OF CRETE. 
Being Illustrations of the Characters of Fluviatile, Lacustrine, and 
Estuarine Formations. 
By H. M. Jennys, F.G.8., Assistant-Secretary of the Geological 
Society. 
Tue Grecian Archipelago and the surrounding mainland have a truly 
classic interest for the Geologist, not so much on account of their 
geographical position and ancient fame, as because they were the 
scenes of some of the most famous labours of the late Professor 
Edward Forbes, a naturalist who, in his brief but brilliant career, 
was enabled, chiefly through his investigations in these regions, to 
throw the bright light of genius over some of the most intricate paths 
of paleontological research, and who thus invested the eastern portion 
of the Mediterranean with a far greater interest to the geologist than it 
otherwise ever would have possessed. Still it must not be supposed that 
the region is barren of facts outside the common course of geological 
phenomena, for, as was shown by Professor Forbes, the fresh-water and 
estuarine strata which occur there contain fossils exhibiting remark- 
able modifications of form caused by the more or less adverse influences 
of the conditions under which they lived. 
The fossil shells which have given rise to this paper, and which 
are figured in the Plate, and described in the Appendix, were submitted 
to my examination by Capt. 'T’. Spratt, R.N., C.B., F.G.S., who was 
the companion of Professor Edward Forbes in a great portion of his 
travels in Asia Minor and the regions round about, and conjoint-author 
with him of the ‘ Travels in Lycia; and he is now busily engaged in 
bringing out a work on the Island of Crete, which will doubtless add 
to his already high reputation as a geologist. 
Of the other observers who have travelled in these regions, and 
have contributed to our knowledge of their geology, I may mention Mr. 
Hamilton, F.R.S., now President of the Geological Society, and his 
fellow-traveller, the late Hugh Strickland, who were the first to 
explore geologically these classic countries. We are also much 
indebted to M. Tchihatcheff and M. Raulin, whose papers have been 
published in the ‘ Bulletin de la Société Géologique de France.’ 
The ancient Lake of the Eastern Mediterranean.—One of the prin- 
cipal points brought forward by Captain Spratt, in his several papers, 
is that the Eastern portion of the Mediterranean, including Greece, 
parts of Asia Minor, and probably the north-eastern extremity of 
Africa, was at some distant epoch in the Tertiary period, the site of 
a huge fresh-water lake ; but the precise geological date at which it 
existed has not yet been satisfactorily made out, though it probably 
coincided with that of the deposition of the estuarine strata about to 
be noticed. 
Many years ago, Messrs. Hamilton and Strickland described a 
series of lacustrine beds i in various parts of Asia Minor, where it appears 
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