274 Notices of Memoirs — Hochstetter' s European Turhey. 



The difference existing between Flints and Coprolites is merely 

 this : that in the one case the basis of animal matter combined with 

 a gelatinous hydric calcic phosphate, and in the other with a gelati- 

 nous silicic acid. In both cases after combination the organic 

 elements carbon, hydrogen, and nitrogen were slowl}'- dissipated, 

 while the mineral matter remained behind as we see it now. 



The source from which the Coprolites seem to have derived their 

 calcic phosphate is to be attributed directly or indirectly to the 

 waste of the volcanic rocks of the Lammermuirs and of other 

 Northern localities. Its means of conveyance the cold current which 

 subsequently eroded the Gault, and brought down in solution the 

 ferrous and other silicates to infiltrate the Foraminiferal casts. 



Once more passing upwards in the Geological series to recent 

 eeas, we come upon what seem to be Coprolites even now in process 

 of formation, for it is asserted by Prof. Edwards,^ that a large part 

 of the guano of the Chincha Islands in no way bears any resem- 

 blance to the excrement of birds, but, on the contrary, is a stratified 

 deposit of Sponges and various Protists still in process of fossilization. 



The anchors of ships weighed there are said to frequently bring 

 np guano from the bottom of the ocean, and microscopic analysis 

 has shown that the insoluble parts of the deposited guano consist of 

 sponge skeletons. Diatoms and Polycystince, far too well preserved 

 to allow us to conclude that they have passed first through the 

 intestines of Molluscs, and then through those of Birds. However 

 this may be — and one would not wish to put too much weight on 

 these statements till they have been abundantly verified — we cannot 

 but feel that the dignity of excrement has already been somewhat 

 detracted from; and while on the one hand tlie sponges have 

 recently received a great elevation in rank in the Zoological king- 

 dom, they have on the other increased somewhat in importance in 

 the Geological world. 



n^OTioiES OIF nvnisnynoiias. 



I. — On the Geology of the Eastern Portion op European 



Turkey. 



Die Geologischen Yerhaltnisse des ostlichen Theiles deb 

 Eukopaischkn TiJRKEi. Von Professor Dr. Ferdinand von 

 Hochstetter. 2'^ Abtheil. Jahrbuch der K. K. geologischen 

 Keichsanstalt, 1872. xxii. Bd. 4 Heft. 



8TRAB0 mentions as the principal mountain ranges of Eoumelia 

 the Beitiscus, Scardus, Orbelus, Scomius or Scombrus, the Rho- 

 dope, and the Haemus. He also asserts that these ranges reach in, a 

 straight line from the Adriatic to the Black Sea, which notion was 

 until recently expounded in all the handbooks of geography, treating 

 these ranges, as a central mountain ridge, and a continuation of the 

 Eastern Alps. Only lately the discoveries of Boue, Viquesnel, 



* Essex Inst., Salem, Mass., Bull. vol. i., p. 11, 1866. Ann. Lye. Nat. Hist., 

 New York, vol. x., p. 225, 1871. Quart. Journ. Micr. See, new ser. no. xlv., p. 71. 



