500 



canic hills rise partly through lacustrine limestone in the Valley of 

 the Hermus, and partly cover the slope of the schistose hills which 

 bound it to the south. There are about thirty older cones, worn by 

 time, and of which the craters are effaced or only marked by a slight 

 depression; and three newer cones, which preserve their characters 

 unaltered, the craters being perfectly defined and the streams of 

 lava still black, rugged, and barren. Here, as in the country of 

 corresponding structure in France, we find streams of lava following 

 the course of existing valleys, and yet frequently cut through by 

 rivers. We find also a tertiary freshwater formation, sometimes 

 resembling chalk with fiints, like that of Aurillac in France, and 

 forming detached hills capped with basalt, while more modern lavas 

 have flowed at the base of the same hills. The extent of this ana- 

 logy will be best appreciated by those who compare Mr. Strick- 

 land's drawings with Mr. Poulett Scrope's masterly illustrations of 

 the French volcanic region. 



The countries watered by the rivers Meander and Cayster are de- 

 scribed as having a simple geological structure. There are granitic 

 rocks, with saccharine marble, there are also hippurite limestone and 

 schist, and tertiary deposits unconformable to these, besides igneous 

 rocks of various ages. The tertiary formations are chiefly lacustrine, 

 and occur in nearly every large valley. They are composed of hori- 

 zontal beds of calcareous marl and white limestone, in which are 

 layers and nodules of flint; they also consist of sandstone, sand, and 

 gravel. 



The only representative of the secondary rocks of Europe is 

 termed by Mr. Strickland "hippurite limestone", which appears to 

 be very sterile in fossils. In this respect and in its other characters 

 it agrees with that great calcareous formation described by MM. 

 Boblaye and Virlet in their splendid work on the Geology of the 

 Morea*. According to these French geologists, three quarters of 

 the Peloponnesus are occupied by a compact limestone several 

 thousand feet thick, in which they could discover scarcely any or- 

 ganic remains, except a few hippurites and nummulites, but which 

 is supposed to be the equivalent of our chalk and oolites. Nothing, 



* Paris, 1833, in folio. It is to be regretted that this work cannot be 

 procured separately from other folios containing the scientific information 

 collected during the French expedition to the Morea. 



