692 G. M. MURGOCI 



by limestones and conglomerates, and more particularly by a deposit 

 occurring in some small old valleys, and consisting of sand and con- 

 glomerate, quite unconformable both to the Eocene strata, and also 

 to the Tortonian and Sarmatian beds, we come to the conclusion 

 that there was at this point a little atoll of Sarmatian age. 



This enables us to explain why the Blahnita, a small river with 

 little water, was able to cut its way right through the widest part of 

 the very hard silicious sandstone and conglomerates of Eocene age. 

 Other geographical facts can be similarly explained. 



The coral reef extends toward the east, where it is covered by 

 later deposits, but at Bircei-Ciocadia it stands up from the eroded 

 sandstones and marls as a high rock 4 km in length, consisting of a 

 cavernous limestone with pockets and lenticular intercalations of 

 sands and sandy marls, and seldom showing any organic structure 

 such as Lilhothamnium. At Ciocadia, however, the whole rock is 

 filled with tubes of Serpula gregalis; the limestone banks have here 

 a lenticular form, and at some points end abruptly, limited by the 

 undisturbed Sarmatian layers. We notice that the rock is identical 

 with that of Toltry and Stanca in the north of Moldavia. The over- 

 lying sandstones and marls contain a middle Sarmatic fauna; under- 

 neath all this, in a ravine, hard, bluish, sandy marls were found, which 

 alternated with bituminous marls, and in which I collected many 

 tubes of Serpula and two petroleum-blackened fossils, probably 

 Ervilia. We should thus have here the lowest horizon of the Sar- 

 matian strata, and, if so, the beds underlying the coral reef would be 

 Tortonian, as in the similar reefs in Podolia and Galicia. 



The petroleum which comes out here from under the coral reef, 

 the emanation of natural gas (at Bircei, Valea Dracoaia, Maghiresti, 

 etc.), and the mineral springs come probably from the Paleogenic 

 island from which the Tortonian conglomerates, and also the cavern- 

 ous limestone, have imbibed the hydrocarbons. The occurrence 

 of petroleum at Bircei is one of the most interesting in Oltenia. 



F. THE SARMATIAN STAGE 



The formations belonging to this stage are well developed, and 

 are considered by Gr. Stefanescu (with determination of fossils by 

 Fontannes), by Sabba Stefanescu, apropos of the discussion about 

 Sacel, and also by K. Redlich. I have found these deposits extend- 



