Reviews — Fbw Hochstetter' s European Turkey. 471 



and bituminous shales rests on a gneissic granite, rich in hornstone. 

 These shales contain a bed of anthractic coal of one foot in thickness, 

 resembling the anthracite of the Werchzirm-Alps in Styria. Brown 

 shales and sandstone follow further up in the narrow valley, which 

 seem to fall south (the former dipped 10 to 15 degrees north), also 

 light grey dolomitic limestone. White micaceous coal-bearing sand- 

 stone, with bituminous shales, alternates with the limestone. The 

 strata strike east to west, and are raised up, dipping slightly south. 

 The whole has the aspect of a Paleeozoic group of rocks, and seems to 

 rest on a crystalline formation. The beds of coal are too insignifi- 

 cant and too much disturbed and contorted to be of any importance 

 in this remote region of Turkey.-^ 



The Crystalline zone of the Balkan, which is the most southern 

 one, forms a belt between Slatica, Tekke, Karlowa, Tschipka, and 

 Kisanlik. It is only a small part of the great crystalline central 

 massive, which once formed the greatest portion of Turkey, but 

 which became through dislocations so diminished as it now appears. 

 These disturbances must have occurred during the Cretaceous epoch, 

 although they did not cease until the Miocene age. Between Karlowa 

 and Tschipka rocks of the Phyllite zone form this belt of crystalline 

 rocks. The strata are much contorted, and dip generally 80° south, 

 and contain many quartz-reefs. Chloritic shales, calcareous clay- 

 slate, and Hornblende-Phyllite alternate with pure Phyllite. Near 

 Kisanlik granite and granitic gneiss are foxmd. 



Near Slatica a small quantity of gold is obtained by washing, and 

 in the Trojan-Balkan some silver lead ore (Galena) and copper ores 

 are found, which are said to have been formerly worked by the 

 Eomans. 



III. EouMELiAN Mountains, with the Upper Makitza and Upper 

 TuNDSOHA Basin. — The western continuation of the Tundscha moun- 

 tains, between the Balkan and the Ehodope, must have been broken 

 down most probably during the Tertiary epoch, and formed large 

 basins, flats, and low ranges of hills. One of these basins is the basin 

 of the upper Maritza or of Phillippopel, a beautiful and productive 

 level, inhabited for ages by an industrious people. The height over 

 the level of the sea is about 200 metres. Most probably the bottom of 

 this basin is formed by deposits of Post-tertiary, diluvial age, although 

 in one (the eastern) corner of the basin. Eocene Nummulitic lime- 

 stone indicates that during the Eocene epoch the sea reached as far 



1 It is most probable that it is this locality, near Michlesltioi, which the English 

 Geologist, Mr. Arthur C. "W. Lennox, F.G.S., mentions in a report in French 

 (Rapport sur la Geologic d'une Partie de la Roumelie inspectee par ordre du Gou- 

 vernement Imperial Ottoman en 1866, Londres, 1867). The geological portion of this 

 report is a real curiosity; for instance, the author talks of this coal, near Michleskibi, as 

 "Lignites du Balkan, Nord de Mufluskoi." Still less credible seems what Mr. 

 Lennox says of the Lias of the Tschipka-Balkan, p. 36 : " C'est le Dr. K. Peters, qui 

 le premier determina I'age veritable du singulier depSt de calcaire secondaire qui se 

 presente au nord et au sud du sommet du Col de Tschipka. Les formes caracteris- 

 tiques suivantes ont ete observees dans cette localite ( ! ! ) Natica macrostoma, Ebmer, 

 Ne^-inoea Visurgis ?, Rbmer, Pterocera, Ghama, etc." Dr. Peters was never in the 

 Balkany, and the said fossils come from the Upper Jurassic formation of the Dobrud- 

 scha. (See Verhandl. K. K. geol. Reichsanst., 3. November, 1863.) 



