93 



MISCELLANEA. 



1. Palccozoic Rocks of Armenia, 



M. Abich, Professor at the University of Dorpat, has been employed 

 by the Government of Russia to make geological investigations in 

 the Transcaucasian districts. He has lately written to Colonel Hel- 

 raersen that he has found on the northern flanks of the greater Ara- 

 rat, near the monastery of Corveral and in the valley of the Aras, 

 ancient limestones with such fossils as Spirifer speciosus, S, ostio- 

 latus^ S. aperturatus, Orihis, Lingula, Catenipora escharoides^ Cya- 

 thophyllum Jlexuosum^ Favosites^ &c. ; and it appears that these beds 

 extend for a considerable distance to the east and north-east of 

 Ararat. 



This discovery is the more interesting, since the very existence of 

 the palaeozoic series in these regions was before quite unknown, and 

 the whole tract was supposed to be completely covered up by de- 

 posits of far more modern date. While waiting for the expression 

 of M. Abich's opinion on the relations of this great spread of palaeo- 

 zoic rocks, may we not suspect that they are connected with those 

 Silurian deposits exhibited on the flanks of the eastern extremity of 

 the Balkan range, and constituting a portion of the Thracian Bos- 

 phorus ? — Bull, de la Soc. Geol. de France, 2nd Ser., vol. iii. p. 1 38. 



11. PalcBozoic Rocks of Siberia. 



In a letter from M. L. Zeitzner, read before the French Geological 

 Society, and dated the 30th of June 1844, we find the following 

 announcement : — 



I have the honour of forwarding a short notice on the fossils of 

 the chain of Stanowa Hrebeta, near Baikal in Siberia, brought by 

 M. Mitkiewcz. The rock containing the fossils is quartzose, and of 

 a greenish colour; it has a marked resemblance to the grauwackes 

 of the Rhine, and the fossils are distinctly palaeozoic species. I have 

 determined the following : — 



1; Gorgonia retiformis, De Kon., An. Foss. de Belg. pi. A. fig. 2. 

 The minute branches are marked by longitudinal and transverse 

 striae. 



2. Terehratida prisca, Schloth. There are bifurcating ribs along 

 the whole length of the valves. 



3. Calymene macrophtlinlmay l^rongn. The specimens are all 

 curved, and the head is covered with little tubercles. 



