I860.] SPEATT BESSABABIA, ETC. 283 



freshwater creation, as much as the Unio or the Dreissena, its present 

 associates. But this is a point for the naturalist to determine ; my 

 superficial views and acquirements merely permitting me, and with all 

 deference, thus to state my opinions, which are the grounds for the 

 conclusions arrived at in the following detailed description of the 

 deposits bordering the Danube, and which I hence regard as of a 

 purely freshwater, and not of a brackish water origin. And I may 

 be permitted, perhaps, to plead for indulgence relative to any error I 

 may have committed on this head, from not having it in my power 

 to refer to works of modern geologists bearing upon it, more especially 

 of Professor Abich, who may have already published a similar con- 

 clusion from researches in other localities prior to, or subsequent to, 

 mine made in 1856 and 1857 at the Danube. 



The southern bounds of the Danubian Valley below "Widdin is 

 remarkable for rather abrupt and high land ; whilst on the north, the 

 YVallachian, Moldavian, and Bessarabian area rises in such a gentle 

 slope, that it appears to the eye, in many parts, a dead level for 

 miles, constituting the Steppe. But nevertheless, it is found to be 

 slightly undulating, and to increase in elevation as we recede from 

 the Danube. It is also traversed by several well-marked, although 

 ■shallow, valleys, which near the sea-coast, or the Delta of the 

 Danube, terminate in long brackish lagoons, or freshwater lakes, 

 bordered by old sea-cliffs, or steep embankments, which exhibit some 

 sections of the strata constituting the " Steppe-deposits." 



These deposits seem to be divisible into three distinct series ; 

 although in reality there may be only two, — namely, 1st, a lower 

 group of marly strata, whitish, grey, and brown, with indurated 

 layers of sandstone and marl. 2nd. A middle group of softer marls, 

 with fossils differing, for the most part, from those in the former, and 

 in general more closely resembling the shells living in the existing 

 lakes. It is possible, however, that these two series are not distinct 

 in geological time, or unconformable. They may be more developed 

 towards the extremity and lower parts of the Steppe than in the 

 upper portion, where they may have formerly existed, but have been 

 since denuded, having had a greater elevation, and consequent!} 

 been subjected more readily to the violent degrading effects of some 

 subsequent disturbance in the condition and limits of the old lake, 

 whereby the group No. 3 was originated. This is probably a drift - 

 series. Its deposits are apparently more earthy than those of Nos. 

 1 and 2, and contain in their lower part some hands of drifted fossils, 

 which seem to have been gathered together by their gravity at the 

 cessation of the troubled condition that produced the drift, and 

 denuded the older lake-deposits. This drift, or deposit formed 

 between the lacustrine and the present period. Oiling the hollows in 

 the denuded surface over a wide extent of the lacustrine area, has 

 given its smooth and level character to the Steppe. 



It is not clear to me that the apparently troubled and turbid 



waters depositing this drift were as purely ficsh as the waters of the 

 lake at earlier periods; for there are certain fact> which had to the 



