I860.] SPKATT BESSARABIA, ETC. 2{)l 



c. A mass of stratified calcareous shales. The shale encloses no- 



dules of semiciystalline limestone, from which it has the appear- 

 ance of being a conglomerate. It has perhaps been altered by 

 heat. These beds incline from the trap-rock (a) at an angle of 

 75° towards the jST.E. by N., and are about 300 feet in thickness. 



d. Brown marls, of the superficial or drift series ; between 200 and 



300 feet above the Danube. 



At Isaktcha, rocks similar to a, b, and c in fig. 4, are overlaid by 

 the superficial marls d, and occasionally appear through them. They 

 sbow considerable disturbance, arising from a protruded volcanic 

 mass which appears to the west of the ruined town of Isaktcha. 



Fig. 5. — Section from the Danube to the Iiaselm Lagoon. 



Popin 



Island. Raselm Lagoon. Besh Tepeh. Danube. 



In fig. 5 we have a section from the Danube across Besh Tepeh to 

 Popin Island, in the Raselm Lagoon. 



u. Stratified schistose rocks, very hard. 



b. Dark-veined shales. 



c. Calcareous shales and schists ; nearly vertical. 



d. Brown marly sands of the Steppe ; no fossils. 



e. A cliff of brown sandy marls over the Danube, with beds of fine 



gravel, formed of fragments of rocks similar to those of the 

 Besh Tepeh llidge. 



Popin Island is apparently an outlying mass of the calcareous 

 shales and schists a, 6, c ; and is partially Hanked with the unfos- 

 ailiferous brown sandy marls of the superficial or drift series. 



The calcareous shales here are mure calcareous than in the Besh 

 Tepeh and Tultcha range, and contain abundant fossils, possibly of 

 the Triasaic(?) age. 



It lias yet to be determined whether the Isaktcha Rocks, which 

 are all similar, are not of an older period : and these rocks seem to 

 extend in one continued chain to Matchin. Smith of Matchin is a 

 long valley opening into the Raselm Lake at BabaDagh, or rather at 

 Yeni Ivni, where (here was an ancient Greek colony, and where 

 still exist the picturesque ruins of a Genoese castle. The anoienl 



name, according to local tradition, was Kraklea. The town no 



doubt stood on the Black Sea at the Greek, if not at the latter, 

 period. <>n the smith side of this long valley, which extends nearly 



to Matchin. rises another range of hills, parallel to the Tultoha 



range, but of less height, [ts extremity juts into the Raselm Lagoon 



to the south and east of Babfl Dagfa and Yeni Keni (or Kraklea ) ; and 



the northern ooasi of tins point ( ,r promontorj presents the following 



