SPRATT — BULGARIA. 81 



I had at that time found no fossils in any of these largely-deve- 

 loped deposits of red sandy marls, &c. ; but I subsequently identi- 

 fied their freshwater origin, as evidenced by the fossils found near Ta- 

 lanta on the Locrian coast, where all the lesser hills are composed of 

 these deposits, also at Thermopoli, the valley of Xero Khori (Euboea), 

 and along the Macedonian coasts up to Thessalonica, where I found 

 them to contain freshwater fossils, the bones of a Snake (afterwards 

 given to Prof. Owen), and also some Mammalian bones, which were 

 sent to the Museum in Jermyn Street *. The localities deserve a brief 

 description (which I hope to give hereafter), from their evident con- 

 nection with the Pleiocene freshwater deposits of Lycia, Rhodes, and 

 Cos, and with some in Crete also ; and, I think I may add further, 

 with the extensive freshw^ater deposits that occur on both sides of the 

 Dardanelles from the Troad to Gallipoli, and along the coast of the 

 Sea of Marmora, where they contain thin beds of lignitef in some 

 places, as at Buyuk Tchekmejeh. 



Almost all the Thracian Peninsula, indeed, is composed of deposits 

 of freshwater origin, consisting of brown and grey marls and sand- 

 stones, or sands, lying nearly horizontal and attaining a thickness 

 apparently of fully 500 and 600 feet ; and, from their fossils, they 

 seem to be of a type corresponding with the latter or Pleiocene fresh- 

 water deposits on the western side of the Archipelago, in Eubcea, and 

 Macedonia, and in Rhodes, &c. on the south. 



The specimens sent to the Society from the deposits on the north 

 side of the Dardanelles will best determine this ; they consist of a 

 Cyclas, Paludina, Planorbis, Mela/iopsis, &c., and there is a cast of 

 some large Seed-vessel with them, resembling a pine-fruit ; this was 

 procured from above Meitos. The deposits immediately over the 

 Europe Castle of the Dardanelles, Killid Bahr, contain fossils in the 

 greatest abundance ; but, excepting the species of Melanopsis here- 

 with sent, these are generally too fragile to be preserved perfect. 



The inquiry as to the boundaries of these freshwater lakes, if they 

 were a chain of lakes, or its range and extent if there were but one 

 large lake, still forms a very interesting subject of research connected 

 with the geology of the Egean, the Sea of Marmora, and the Black 

 Sea. 



Post-Tertiary or Recent deposits. — On several parts of the shores 

 of the Dardanelles there are the remains of a recent marine deposit, 

 indicative of a change in the present sea-level since it succeeded the 

 Pleiocene lake above referred to. For at the base of the hills north 

 of Meitos, and on the opposite coast, there are Oyster-beds at an 

 elevation of about 40 feet above the sea. 



These Oysters correspond exactly with those now existing plenti- 

 fully in the channel near Meitos, which are largely exported to Con- 



* These fragmentary mammalian bones were submitted by Prof. E. Forbes to 

 Prof. Owen, but were not determinable. The ophidian vertebras have been de- 

 scribed in a paper read before the Society by Prof. Owen, Jan. 7, 18.^7, who referred 

 them to an extinct, and previously undescribed genus, Laophis. — Edit. Q. G. J, 



t For a notice of the occurrence of Hgnites in the north-western districts of 

 Asia Minor, see this Journal, no. 45, p. 1. — Edit. Q. G. J. 



VOL. XIII. — PART I. Oi 



