632 



From the foot of Hassan Dagh to the gi'cat salt lake of Kodj- 

 Hissar, the road traverses a plain, bounded on the south by low hills 

 of the lacustrine limestone ; and on the north by hills having narrow 

 peaks and steep escarpments, of red and yellow sandstone, sometimes 

 associated Avith calcareous conglomerates, sand and marl, and capped 

 towards the east and north-east by beds of tuff and a white pu- 

 miceous rock, which passes into trachyte. Still further east, is a 

 hill in which the sandstone rests upon a trachyt;c conglomerate. 



The phenomena presented in this district, the author conceives, 

 indicate the following operations : — 



1 . The irruption of the trachyte, from which the trachytic con- 

 glomerate was formed. 



2. The deposition of the sandstones, conglomerates and marls. 



3. The ejection of the igneous matter constituting the overlying 

 beds of volcanic tuff and pumiceous rock. 



4. The excavation of the valley. 



5. The formation of the volcanic cones at the foot of Hassan 

 Dagh. 



The water of the salt lake of Kodj-hissar is so highly charged 

 with saline matter, that no fish can live in it ; and if the wings of 

 a bird touch it, they become instantly stiff and useless with incrus- 

 tation. Mr. Flamilton could not ascertain the exact dimensions of 

 the lake, but he was informed, that it is about thirty hours or 

 leagues in circumference. The bottom is a soft mud, incapable of 

 supporting the sHghtest weight ; but at the part examined by the 

 author, a thick, solid crust of salt, which bore the weight of a 

 horse, rested upon the soft mud, and was covered by about six inches 

 of water, which he was informed would be dried up in another 

 month. 



The sandstone formation extends beyond the village of Kodj- 

 hissar, towards the N.N.W., dipping in the same direction. It is 

 penetrated near the tov^n by a mass of finely- grained, grey granite, 

 which also sends veins into the sandstone, and produces an anti- 

 clinal inclination, the dip towards the south being 80°. In the 

 sandstone conglomerate, of the neighbourhood, Mr. Hamilton, how- 

 ever, noticed pebbles of a grey granite similar in composition to that 

 of the protruded mass. About a mile N.W. of Kodj-hissar are 

 detached portions of the horizontal white limestone, either resting, 

 unconformably against the sandstone, or filling up irregularities in 

 its surface. In some places it caps the hills, which flank the valley 

 a little to the north of the village. 



The only fossils noticed in the sandstone, were impressions re- 

 sembling fucoids, and similar to those found in the Alpine limestone 

 near Trieste. 



The author then describes the structure of the country between 

 Kodj-hissar and Csesarea, a distance of about 108 miles. It consists 

 of the same sandstone system containing gypsum, and occasionally 

 overlaid by horizontal beds of the lacustrine limestone and volcanic 

 tuff; but the latter constitutes likewise large districts, the fundamental 

 rock of which is not visible. Granite forms a range of hills thirty 



