1849.] tchihatcheff's researches in asia minor. 3GI 



mainder, now safe in Paris, is so rich and valuable, in regard to geo- 

 logy, palaeontology and botany, that I have all possible reason to be 

 satisfied, and to consider myself well repaid for my long and painful 

 exertions. I shall not tire you by enumerating my various journeys, 

 which form a complete network over the whole Anatolian peninsula, 

 from the Mediterranean to the Black Sea, and as far east as a line 

 from Trales to Tarsus. The following are a few of the more important 

 results of my researches : — 



1. In 1848 I discovered two important palaeozoic localities in Asia 

 Minor ; the one at its eastern extremity composing the extensive range 

 of the Antitaurus ; the other only two days' journey from Constanti- 

 nople forming the northern shore of the Gulf of Nicomedia. Both 

 are Devonian, as they contain Terebratula fusca, Productus subacu- 

 leatus, Spi7nfer speciosus, and other species, as determined by M. de 

 Verneuil. The ignorance of geologists regarding the former is not 

 wonderful, as I was the first person who ventured to explore this lofty 

 and picturesque chain, situated on the borders of Kurdistan and in- 

 habited by savage and fanatical tribes only imperfectly subject to the 

 Turks, and among whom I lost two of my men, one shot at my side, 

 the other killed by a sword-cut in a contest with thirty horsemen who 

 plundered us of all our property. But the other deposit, in the very 

 vicinity of Constantinople, might have been expected to be better 

 known, as most of the geologists who have explored this district have 

 visited Ismid or Nicomedia, and had they only gone there by land 

 instead of by water, could not possibly have missed it. This is pro- 

 bably the reason why Mr. Hamilton and others marked the northern 

 shore of the Nicomedian gulf as cretaceous, and the remainder of the 

 peninsula between it and the Black Sea as Silurian. The prolonga- 

 tion of the Silurian ? system on the other side of the Bosphorus, as 

 given in your map, is also very arbitrary, as neither M. Hommaire 

 de Hell, M. Visquenel nor myself, could ever find any fossils in the 

 Giant's Mountain, where Mr. Hamilton says they occur. In the 

 southern part, marked as cretaceous, Devonian fossils are however 

 abundant, and the whole peninsula therefore probably belongs to this 

 formation. 



2. It would be tedious to notice other errors, but I may say that 

 the valley of the Kizil Irmak, coloured on your map as tertiary, cer- 

 tainly belongs to the enigmatical "formation of gypsum and red sand- 

 stone," developed on a very large scale in Asia Minor, which Mr. 

 Hamilton in his * Travels' supposes to belong to the Permian system. 

 Before my researches this deposit had never yielded a single fossil, 

 but in the red sandstone of Yuzgat I discovered numerous Alveolina, 

 of a large size and probably a new species, associated with nummulites 

 and a few bivalves. Hence this rock belongs to the " terrain num- 

 mulitique," which, if we suppose all the red deposits in this country 

 to be of the same age, is probably the most extensive formation in 

 Asia Minor*. 



* The chief differences of opinion between my zealous friend and myself will 

 be pointed out by Mr. W. Hamilton ; but in reference to the statement concern- 

 ing the nummulitic rocks, I cannot avoid expressing my conviction, that a more 



