80 PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



In Demidoff' s Geological Map of the Crimea, the formation in 

 this district is referred to a Tertiary of the Miocene age, which I much 

 doubt ; at any rate, it is numbered and coloured the same as the 

 western half of the Khersonese, with which it certainly does not 

 agree in geological characters or age. 



Thus we have, as I have shown, a close resemblance in the deposits 

 of the opposite shores of the Black Sea, — that is, of the Crimean 

 and the Bulgarian coasts, although an exact geological correspond- 

 ence in respect to age has not been yet made out. We have, how- 

 ever, an evident submarine connexion of the two mountain-ranges of 

 the Balkan and the Tauric Peninsula, traceable across the Black Sea 

 in a line between them. For from Odessa we have a shallow sea, 

 increasing out from 10 to 40 fathoms only a little north of this line, 

 — forming in fact a gradually inclined bank, until its edge descends 

 suddenly from 300 feet to 3000 and upwards*, as on the south face 

 of the Tauric Range ; thus showing the evident continuity of the 

 great displacements of the older formations, by which the Balkan 

 and the Crimea were elevated. This submarine plateau or steppe is 

 thus the link connecting the Balkan with the Caucasus as a topo- 

 graphical feature. 



It was along the margin of this submarine plateau that the electric 

 cable connecting Bulgaria with the Crimea was laid, so as to take 

 advantage of its convenient depth, instead of risking an accident over 

 the deep region of the sea in a direct line across ; for the edge of the 

 bank forms a slight curve to the north-west of the direct line. 



The freshwater deposits. — The freshwater deposits overlying the 

 marine above Baljik are deserving a special remark ; because, from 

 their position, they seem not to have been formed in a very limited 

 lacustrine basin. Their absence, however, at Devno would rather 

 imply the contrary ; but it is possible that they have been denuded 

 from that locality. 



The real age of the overlying red marls, &c. has yet to be deter- 

 mined. I am led to remark, however, that they bear some resem- 

 blance to the freshwater deposits on the north shore of the Sea of 

 Marmora, at Buyuk Tchekmejeh ; and also very much so with those 

 forming the lesser hills along the Macedonian coast, from Salonica, 

 and also in the north end of Eubcea and the Locrian shore ; fossils 

 from which have been long since given by me to the Museum of 

 Economic Geology f. The localities from whence these fossils came 

 have not yet been described J ; but the corresponding deposits are 

 noticed as a group of "brownish sandy marls and gravels " overlying 

 the Eocene freshwater beds of Samos and Euboea, in a paper by me, 

 published in the Geological Society's Journal § of 1847. 



* Since ascertained to descend abruptly from 50 to 500 or 600 fathoms, or 

 nearly 4000 feet in depth : and in the middle of the western basin of the Black 

 Sea the depth has been ascertained by me to be nearly 7000 feet, or nearly twice 

 that of the Tauric range in the southern part of the Crimea. [T. S., October, 1856.] 



t Amongst them is LimncBa Adelina in great abundance. 



X Since this paper was read, Capt. Spratt has communicated a description of 

 the deposits here referred to, in his memoir " On the Freshwater Tertiaries of 

 Eubcea," &c., read Dec. 17, 1856.— Edit. Q. G. J. § Vol. vii. p. 70. 



