472 Bevieics — Von Sochstetter^ s European Turhey. 



as Chaskioi. Near Philippopel a few syenite cliffs remain of the old 

 Syenite continent still at the surface, forming thus the ground on 

 which the town is built. A similarly-formed basin is that of the 

 Upper Tundscha, at the base of the Balkan, which lies about 200 

 metres higher than the former. No remains of Tertiary deposits 

 were found there ; in fact, the basin looks like the bottom of a recently 

 dried-up lake, which it no doubt i's. Two large tributaries of the 

 Maritza, the Easka and the Topolnica, divide the Eoumelian moun- 

 tains in three divisions: — 1. The Karadscha Dagh; 2. Sredna 

 Gora ; and, 3, the Ichtiman mountains. 



1. Karadscha Dagh, a long mountain chain of a general height of 

 700 to 800 metres, with some summits of 1000 metres, between 

 Sliwno and Kalofer. In a section from Eski Saara to Kisanlik 

 (Uj)per Tundscha basin) we meet thinly stratified limestone and 

 marls, striking east to west, and dipping 80 degrees south, resting 

 on thinly stratified grey limestone with flints, dipping south-east, 

 and resting on reddish, green, and light marls and limestone, with 

 dykes of audesite. This series of strata Von Hochstetter considers 

 most likely to be Neocomian, by comparison with other similar 

 looking strata in Turkey. It rests un conformably on reddish, very 

 hard quartzite and quartz sandstone, with a bluish limestone, con- 

 taining crinoids of Triassic (St. Cassian) type. Granite and gneiss 

 form the base of this formation. 



2. The Sredna Gora forms the highest portion of the Eoumelian 

 mountains, but is almost unfortunately a terra incognita, as Hoch- 

 stetter only touched it at the most southern extremity, from an 

 examination of which he suggested that the principal mass of this 

 system consists of Crystalline rocks. This part of the country is 

 remarkable for several warm and other springs, used since Eoman 

 times as watering-places. 



3. The Ichtiman Mountains are hardly known. All maps of this 

 part of Turkey are incorrect, giving the river Wed an entirely wrong 

 course. In the Ichtiman mountains lies the watershed between the 

 numerous tributaries of the Maritza and the Isker rivers, forming 

 also the watershed between the ^gean and the Black Sea. Two small 

 basins (of Ichtiman, height 610 metres, and of Banja, 590 metres), 

 belong to the Maritza river system, and the basin of Samakov (960 

 metres) belongs to the Isker river. All of the three basins are sur- 

 rounded by crystalline rocks, and filled with fluviatile conglomerates, 

 sands, etc. Tertiary strata are nowhere met with. Along the road 

 from Phillippopel to Banja and Samakov, Hochstetter describes 

 alluvial deposits as far as near to Bazardshik, where the road passes 

 into crystalline rocks, which are partly in basins like Banja (which 

 possesses a warm spring) covered by alluvial deposits. Much Crystal- 

 line limestone, Hornblende-gneiss, and Mica-gneiss. Near Sipotsch, 

 syenite occurs with pegmatite. Near Bazardshik, red trachyte was 

 observed. 



The road from Samakov to Sofia leads over a high saddle 

 of the Brdo mountains (1,300 metres). The section exposed there 

 exhibits syenite, gneiss, red quartzites, and white sandstone, the 



