470 Meviews — Von Hochstetter's European Turkey. 



Southern slopes of the Balkany near Aidos, Kamabat, and Sliwno. 

 Here sandstones and calcareous marls witk Cretaceous Fucoides 

 alternate with volcanic tuffs. Near Trn, in a similar sandstone and 

 marl, was found Ammonites Milletianus, D'Orb. 



Loioer Cretaceous deposits: («) Caprotina liiaeBtone (Urgonien). In 

 the country south of Nikopoli is found a light grey dense limestone 

 of alpine character, yielding Caprotina, Gasteropods, and Badiolites. 

 (b) Neocomian shales, marl, and limestone. Underlying the Capro- 

 tina limestones near Jablanica are found dark calcareous shales and 

 limestones, which dip at an angle of from 15 to 20 degrees towards 

 the north. These beds yield — 



Belemnites subfusiformis. Rasp. Ammonites cryptoceras, D'Orb. 



Ammonites Matheroni, D'Orb. „ Grasianus, D'Orb. 



„ Jeannoti, D'Orb. Grioeeras Duvalii^ Lev. 



Near Sliwno a series of shales and calcareous marls of great 

 thickness, with a red quartz -porphyry of peculiar character, but 

 without fossil remains, is also considered as of Neocomian age. 



Dyas or Lower Trias. — Red Conglomerates and Sandstones at the 

 southern slopes of the Balkany near Sofia. The whole of the southern 

 slopes of the Balkan chain of mountains, so far as it forms the 

 northern rim of the basin of Sofia, consist of an uninterrupted sand- 

 stone zone, which forms a conspicuously -marked country at the base 

 of the high limestone mountains behind. The height of this sand- 

 stone zone is about 1,000 metres. Coarse Red Conglomerates, con- 

 taining pebbles of Gneiss, Phyllite, Clayslate, Quartz, and siliceous 

 slate, etc., etc., alternate with thick layers of an argillaceous sand- 

 stone and marls of an intense red colour. The strata of this zone 

 form a saddle, and are overlain by a greenish-grey marly shale of 

 great thickness falling north. Above these strata rest the enormous 

 masses of limestone deposits of the Balkany. 



Von Hochstetter identifies the marl-shale with the Neocomian 

 shales of Jablanica, and thinks it very probable that the red con- 

 glomerates represent either Dyas (Permian) or Triassic rocks. With 

 the sole exception of a small patch of a Triassic deposit, between the 

 rivers Isker and Slatica, which Boue mentions, true Triassic or 

 Jurassic rocks of Alpine character seem entirely wanting in the 

 Balkany ; the formations of this mountain system seem to represent 

 the system of strata which were deposited northwards of the old 

 crystalline massive of central Europe. We meet with Triassic and 

 Jurassic rocks only on the southern slopes of the Balkany, which are 

 to be looked upon as offshoots of the Alpine system. 



Palceozoic Boclcs of doubtful age. — If we draw a section in a 

 southern direction through Etropol we meet with a difierent series of 

 formations altogether. There mica schists, talcose, and clayslates 

 are greatly developed ; in fact, they form (according to Boue) the 

 watershed between the rivers Wid and Osma. According to the 

 same author, dark limestone deposits of a considerable thickness, 

 with greywacke-like sandstones, occur at the northern slopes of the 

 above-mentioned crystalline formation. 



Hochstetter met with similar strata at the southern slopes of the 

 Balkany, near Kisanlik, where a peculiar set of brown, micaceous. 



