TERTIARY FORMATIONS OF OLTENIA 691 



the Eocene conglomerates unconformably. Around the Eocene 

 island we see the Lithothamnium formations in the ravines which 

 cut through the Sarmatian deposits down to the Eocene beds. On 

 the summit of the Eocene island I found sandy limestone and con- 

 glomerates with casts and moulds of fossils, indeterminable, probably 

 Tapes. The beds which cover the island are certainly Sarmatian, 

 because they are the prolongation of conglomerates, sandy and marly 

 beds, in which Sabba Stefanescu 1 and myself have found many 

 Sarmatian fossils. Besides the fossils obtained by Sabba Stefanescu, 

 Professor Laskareff has determined, from my collection, Tapes 

 gregaria Pt, and Mactra fragilis Lask., and concludes that we are 

 dealing with the lower Sarmatian. These fossiliferous beds at the 

 bottom of the valley do not lie directly on the Eocene conglomerates, so 

 that the inferior marls, conglomerates, and dark Lithothamnium 

 limestone may be Tortonian, as indicated by the facies. The struc- 

 ture and arrangement of the formations around the Eocene island 

 are the same as those described both for old and recent coral reefs, 2 

 corresponding in particular with the formations "Miodobaren" of 

 Galicia, "Toltry" of Podolia, and Stanca of north Moldavia. 3 We 

 have, in short, around the Eocene cliff of Sacel a coral reef which 

 began, like "Miodobaren," to form in the II Mediterranean Sea, 

 and continued to grow in the Sarmatic. The lower layers, where 

 they can be seen, are inclined quaquaversally: the higher strata, 

 viz., sandstone, conchiliferous limestone, marls, with leaves of trees 

 and bones of vertebrates, form an anticline, the core of which is 

 composed of Eocene conglomerates. Northward we find, as shown 

 by Gregoire Stefanescu 4 a syncline, followed by an inconsiderable 

 anticline (Fig. 2). If we take into account the great amount of 

 erosion of the Eocene beds before the Sarmatian deposits, and the 

 very complicated outline of the Paleogenic island, which is covered 



1 "Sur l'age des conglomerats de Roumanie," loc. cit. 



2 I mention here the valuable recent work by Saville Kent (Barrier Reef of Aus- 

 tralia, 1893) ; Grabau (Paleozoic coral reef, 1903) ; Agassiz (Pacific c. coral reef, 1903) . 

 Branner (stone reef of northeastern Brazil, 1904); Funafuti (atoll, 1904); Skeats 

 (dolomites of Tyrol, 1905). 



3 The extensive literature about these formations is summarized by Simionescu 

 on the occasion of his study of Stanca, "Sur la geologie de la Moldavie," Annates de 

 t'Universite de J assy, 1903. 



4 Loc. cit., Bull, de la Soc. geol. de France. 



