Capt Spratt on the Freshwater Deposits of Bessarabia, &c. 161 
water deposits in the Grecian Archipelago and in the neighbouring 
countries, also around the Black Sea, to which others have alluded, 
or which have been described by himself as evidences of the existence 
of a great freshwater lake, probably of middle tertiary age. 
On the borders of the Yalpuk Lake, in Southern Bessarabia, are 
sections exhibiting old lacustrine deposits containing similar fossils 
to those found elsewhere by Capt. Spratt in the strata referred by 
him to the extensive oriental lake of the middle tertiary period. 
Among these fossils are freshwater Cockles ; such as are associated 
with Dreissena polymorpha in the strata at the Dardanelles and 
elsewhere. After some search, Capt. Spratt found similar Cockles 
living in the Yalpuk lake; and from this evidence, and from the 
relatively different levels of the old lacustrine deposits and the 
present Black Sea, he satisfied himself of the really freshwater 
condition of the old tertiary lake,—the Black Sea area having been 
separated from the old lacustrine area of Bessarabia and the Pro- 
vinces by a barrier at the Isaktcha hills which the Danube has since 
cut through. Capt. Spratt remarked that the lacustrine conditions 
of the great area in Eastern Europe and Asia Minor where he has 
indicated freshwater deposits were probably interfered with by 
volcanic outbursts, which opened a communication between the 
Euxine and Mediterranean, altering the levels of the region, causing 
the formation of the great gravel-beds at the foot of the Carpathians, 
and an outspreading of the brown marly superficial deposits of the 
Steppe, which are locally impregnated with mineral or marine salts, 
indicative either of the influx of the sea, or of mineral solutions set 
free by volcanic agencies. 
Capt. Spratt also described the older rocks, some probably of 
Triassic age, and others Cretaceous, which are here conformably 
overlain by the lacustrine deposits. These he saw in the hills, 
south of the Danube, near Tultcha and Beshtepeh ; also at the 
Raselm Lagoon, where Cretaceous shales and marble containing 
Ceratites, &c. occur; the latter at Popin Island. At Dolashina, a 
cape south of the Raselm Lagoon, the soft Cretaceous limestone is 
full of small Inocerami. 
These indications of Secondary rocks are intimately connected 
with those further south, at Cape Media and Kanara, formerly 
described by the author. 
3. “On the Recent and Fossil Foraminifera of the Mediterranean 
Area.” By T. Rupert Jones, F.G.S., and W. K. Parker, Mem. 
Micr. Soc. 
The authors presented an extensive Table of the Species and 
varieties of recent Foraminifera from several localities in the Medi- 
terranean (worked out from material gathered and dredged by Capt. 
Spratt, Mr. Hamilton, Prof. Meneghini, and other friends), and of 
the fossil forms from the Tertiary deposits of Malaga (Spain), Turin, 
Sienna, Palermo, and Malta (communicated by Prof. Ansted, Prof. 
Meneghini, and the Marchese C. Strozzi, or supplied from the 
Society’s Museum) ; also the fossil Foraminifera from Baljik supplied 
by Capt. Spratt, and those of the Vienna Basin as elaborated by 
D’Orbigny, Czjeck, and Reuss. The recent Foraminifera, tabulated 
Phil. Mag. S. 4. Vol. 19. No, 125. Feb. 1860. M 
