1856.] SPRATT — FRESHWATER DEPOSITS OF EUBCEA, ETC. 181 



[In a letter to the Assistant- Secretary, dated March 11, 1857, the 

 author expresses his belief that the ossiferous gravels of Pikerni, 

 on the flank of Pentelicus, not far from Athens, are of the same age 

 as the Eubcean and Locrian gravels that overlie the freshwater marls 

 and limestones ; although at Pikerni the latter appear to be absent. 

 These ossiferous gravels of Attica and their interesting fossils have 

 been described by Wagner and Roth in the Munich Transactions, 

 and by Duvernoy and Gaudry in the ' Comptes Rendus.' They are 

 regarded as being of Miocene age. — Edit.] 



To the west and south-west the Atalanta freshwater deposits are 

 bounded by the Hippurite-limestone and the associated underlying 

 shales and schists. 



At the foot of the Acropolis of Opus there is a protrusion of ser- 

 pentine, by which the colour of the schists has changed into a 

 blackish-brown, and that of the shales into a deep purple. The 

 schists and shales dip to the S.W., at an angle of 60°. The hill 

 immediately over Atalanta is a mass of red trachyte, of more recent 

 date ; and which was probably an outpouring of igneous matter at 

 the breaking up of the lake. 



On the opposite side of the channel of Egripo, the Hippurite-lime- 

 stones and the schist are also highly disturbed by volcanic rocks, 

 dipping generally to the N.E. at from 30° to 60° ; but they are 

 almost vertical near several trap and serpentine protrusions. 



Mount Kandili (in Eubcea), opposite the Melasina promontory, 

 is an uplifted mass of limestone, with serpentine and disturbed 

 schists flanking it to the north. 



At Mount Balanti over Lipso Bay, the limestone also dips to the 

 N.E. at 5^° ; but over Lipso a porphyritic trap throws oif the 

 schists and shales in contact with it, at high angles ; and a vent to 

 the subterranean heat still exists at the point of the Bay immediately 

 under Mount Balanti, in a hot-spring of the high temperature of 

 170°. 



Between Mounts Kandili and Balanti on the Euboean coast is a 

 district bordering the shore, in which the limestone-deposits are 

 again largely developed : from Limnee northwards they are chiefly 

 the white compact calcareous strata of the lower group. But they 

 are overlaid (and unconformably, as I thought, from a difference of 

 the dip) by some remnants of a soft and wasting group of marls and 

 sands corresponding to the Livonati series, which towards the N.E. 

 part of the district (the direction of their dip in general) are better 

 developed ; each formation preserving its characteristic fossils, as 

 will be seen by the specimens at the Museum of Practical Geology. 



The Planorbis of the lower group is apparently Planorbis rotun- 

 datus * of the Smyrna and Samos deposits. 



In the vicinity of Limnse are thick gravel-beds, lying on the flanks 

 of the freshwater strata, and also capping the upper, as at Livonati. 

 Containing fragments of the older freshwater rocks, as well as of the 



* Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc. vol. i. p. 163. 



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