A GEOLOGICAL ROUTE THROUGH CENTRAL ASIA 



MINOR 



FROM AFIUN KARA HISSAR VIA SIVRI HISSAR, ANGORA, 

 SUNGURLU, AND THE MALYA TCHOL TO CAESAREA 



WILLIAM T. M. FORBES, PH.D. 



New Brunswick, N.J. 



The following paper is the summary of a series of notes taken 

 in the summer of 1907, in connection with the Cornell Expedition 

 to Asia Minor and the Assyro-Babylonian Orient. In a worked- 

 over area like most of Europe and the United States, such a series 

 of observations, probably somewhat inaccurate because of their 

 hurried character, would add little to our knowledge. But in 

 central Asia Minor the case is far different. Travel has been 

 difficult and travelers are few. The men who have studied the 

 geology of even a part of central Asia Minor could be numbered 

 on one's fingers, and but one or two of them had the advantage 

 of being trained geologists used to the work and to the country, 

 and with the leisure to stop and examine. 



For this reason it is that these notes represent new territory 

 in practically their whole length. At certain points only did we 

 cross (geologically) known territory. 



The observations were taken from horseback, as had to be 

 done under the conditions of travel. It was rarely possible to 

 stop to investigate a place or to visit again one that had been 

 passed. This must have resulted in some errors, especially as 

 the caravan could not carry any great weight of specimens. 



Frequently the rocks were fossiliferous, making their date 

 certain, but unconformities were so frequent that it was not 

 wholly safe to consider surrounding rocks as of the same date as 

 the fossiliferous strata. Specimens were preserved wherever 

 fossils were found (the majority were Eocene nummulites). These 

 are deposited in the museum at Harvard and a study of them by 



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