﻿TRANSLATIONS AND NOTICES 



OF 



GEOLOGICAL MEMOIRS. 



On the Geology of the Vicinity of Trieste. 

 By Friedrich Kaiser. 



[Haidinger's Berichte iiber die Mittheilungen v. Freund. d. Wissensch. in Wien, 

 vol. v. p. 267.] 



The results of two years' residence in the neighbourhood of Trieste 

 are here offered, rather to serve as a basis for directing future inqui- 

 ries than as pretending to be a complete picture of its geology. It 

 is still a question for anxious investigation, to ascertain the relations 

 of the limestones of the Alps and the Carpathians with that great 

 sandstone formation which passes under the various names of the 

 Vienna, or the Carpathian sandstone, or Macigno, according to the 

 country it is found in, and the identity of which, though probable, has 

 only lately been established : and when a series of observations not 

 yet completed shall be published, it is hoped that they will throw 

 some light on this inquiry. 



In the neighbourhood of Trieste three formations are distinguish- 

 able. Nanos and the greater part of the Karst mountains are loaded 

 with Hippurites, some of the specimens being very large and well- 

 preserved, which fossils refer these rocks with every probability to 

 the upper chalk. Large blocks derived from the wreck of this hip- 

 purite formation, which also contains abundance of Terebratulce and 

 Corals, are sought after for economic purposes, and supply Trieste 

 with an admirable building material. 



In this formation occur those circular-shaped valleys [Kesseltha- 

 ler] with ravines and gullies 100 feet deep, in which the torrents that 

 flow into them are lost, to be again thrown up to the surface, as is 

 the case with the stream called the Timavo at S. Giovanni near 

 Duino, and at other spots along the coast, as well as from the sea- 

 bottom near S. Croce. These complicated fissures have been little 

 examined, although the right understanding them, particularly that 

 through which the Recca flows, would be most desirable for Trieste, 

 which is constantly liable to suffer from want of water. 



H. von Morlot's excellent treatise on the geological relations of 

 Istria contains much desirable information on that head, as well as 

 on the probable origin of these cavities ; and as a confirmation of the 

 theory he has proposed, it should be recorded, that a piece of pisiform 

 iron-ore has been discovered near Trebich, in the wall of a perpen- 

 dicular cleft, where it was protected from the access of air. 



VOL. VII. PART II. E 



