Geological Society of London. 95 
FOREIGN GEOLOGY. 
Among the researches into the geology of foreign countries in 
which our members have been recently engaged, I have great pleas- 
ure in alluding to the labors of Mr. H. E. Strickland and Mr. Ham- 
ilton in Asia Minor. These gentlemen first examined the neighbor- 
hood of Constantinople, and found on both sides of the Thracian 
Bosphorus an ancient group of fossiliferous strata, consisting of schist, 
sandstone, and limestone. From the character of the fossils it is in- 
ferred that these rocks may probably be the equivalents 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 frag- 
ments of a Trilobite. 
The rarity of any fossiliferous deposits of higher antiquity than 
the old red randstone 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 travelers examimed 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 
bound it to the south. There are about thirty older cones, worn by 
time, and of which the craters are effaced 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, ragged, and barren. Here, as in the country of corres- 
ponding 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 fresh-water formation, sometimes resembling 
chalk with flints, like that of Aurillac in France, and forming detach- 
ed hills capped with basalt, while more modern lavas have flowed 
at the base of the same hills. The extent of this analogy will be 
best appreciated by those who compare Mr. Strickland’s drawings 
with Mr. Poulett Scrope’s masterly illustrations of the French vol- 
canic region. 
