TERTIARY FORMATIONS OF OLTENIA 685 



conglomerates, sands and sandy marls, with Helicidae, inclined 

 at 70 , and resting apparently with their end above the Miocene 

 basis. Between Cerna valley and Coada Magurei there are very 

 many ravines with beautifully exposed sections; in one the folding 

 of the salt formation may be shown; in another, the overlapping of 

 the Pontic folded strata over the salt formation. The Pontic strata are 

 evidence here of a redeposition of the Oligocene, perhaps also of the 

 Burdigalian beds (see general considerations). 



2. The upper horizon 0} the salt formation. — The upper horizon of 

 the salt formation is formed by deep banks of green or gray marls 

 and clays with Globigeriiia (Mrazec and Teisseyre), and repeated 

 beds of palla, sand, and sandstone. The sand is better represented, 



Fig. 7. — Section through the Ocnele Mari salt basin. The letters represent the 

 same formations as in Fig. 4. 



but the conglomerates all but wanting. It would correspond to the 

 gray marly fades of the east and north salt formation. The depth 

 of this formation is variable: At Ocnele Mari (Fig. 7), where a salt 

 massif is intercalated, it is of considerable thickness; at Slatioara, 

 however, it is not 50 111 thick. This horizon is very well defined; as 

 substratum we find often large quantities of palla, which here has, 

 very rarely, an eruptive or crystalline fades. This palla is very fine, 

 like pumice or chalk; in one place it is compact with conchoidal 

 fracture, without stratification, but with fluidal zones, and of a white, 

 yellow, or bluish color, and it is very similar to Trass; in another it 

 is porous, friable, sandy, like tripoli, and not wanting in diatomaceous 

 debris. All transitions can be found between true vulcanic dacite 

 tuff or ash, and marl or sandstone, according to the percentage of 

 foreign sedimentary elements which it may contain. That it was 

 transported and deposited by sea waves is obvious. The calcareous 

 variety is very rare (at Vladesti, Valcea); the sandy is the most 

 developed. In its macroscopical and microscopical characters it is 



