394 



H. E. Strickland, Esq., on the Geology 



The general features of these and the other formations of Asia Minor were 

 explained in a paper laid before the Society on November 2, 1836*. 



In the Smyrna district, the mountains of the hippurite limestone formation 

 apparently once contributed to form the boundary of a great lake, in which 

 calcareous matter was deposited to the depth of many hundred feet. Two 

 vast eruptions of igneous matter have since taken place, one on the north, the 

 other on the south of the present Bay of Smyrna. These convulsions pro- 

 duced great changes in the form of the surface, and in the arrangement of 

 pre-existing rocks, and the study of this district is thus rendered both interest- 

 ing and difficult. 



As the phasnomena exhibited on the north of the Bay of Smyrna are not 

 visibly connected with those on the south side, it will be best to consider each 

 portion of the district separately. 1 will begin with the southern side, and 

 take the formations in the order of age. 



1. The micaceous schist and saccharine marble, which compose the ridge 

 of Mount Tmolus, terminate near the village of Trianda, and form part of the 

 eastern boundary of the lacustrine formation. The micaceous schists of x\sia 

 Minor being fully described in the memoir before alluded to, it is needless to 

 repeat their characters in this paper. 



2. The compact gray limestone with Hippurites is, in this district, asso- 

 ciated with an abundance of compact sandstone and schist, of black, greenish, 

 or cream-coloured hues. The whole formation has been so greatly disturbed, 

 that it is difficult to determine, whether the sandstone and schists were depo- 

 sited above or beneath the limestone; but their union with it is too intimate 

 to admit of their being regarded as a distinct formation. They seem analo- 

 gous to the greenish sandstones of the Morea and the macignos of Tuscany 

 and Trieste, all of which have been referred to the cretaceous system. 



The western boundary of the hippurite limestone of Mount Tartali is at the 

 village of Cucklujah, whence it extends eastward for perhaps fifteen or twenty 

 miles, along the northern declivity of Mount Tmolus. Further details re- 

 specting it at this locality will be found in the memoir alluded to. 



The range of Mount Corax consists almost entirely of sandstones and shales, 

 but at one point, about 3\ miles west of Smyrna, a small mass of gray lime- 

 stone is exposed, and serves to identify these rocks with those of Mount 

 Tartali. 



Around the village of Baltchikeui the shales are of a pale cream colour, soft 

 and friable, and contain a considerable admixture of sand, which is sometimes 

 so coarse as to become a conglomerate of fragments of quartz, a quarter of an 

 inch in diameter. 



* See Proceedings of the Ge o logical Society, vol. ii. p. 423. 



