of the Neighbourhood of Smyrna. 395 



About \\ mile beyond Baltchikeui is a tliermal spring, on the site of a temple 

 to Apollo mentioned by Slrabo. In the ravine immediately above it, the beds 

 of shale are dark-coloured and compact, dipping thirty or forty degrees to 

 the northward*. 



3. Tertiary lacustrine limestone. 



This deposit forms an extensive table-land, ranging southward from Smyrna 

 for about fifteen miles. On the east it abuts unconformably against the hippu- 

 rite limestone of Tartali and the micaceous schist of Tmolus, and on the west 

 it is bordered by the range of Mount Corax. The southern boundary is near 

 Trianda, where the formation rises above the alluvial plain of Tourbali; but the 

 original barriers of the lake on that side are not now apparent. This area 

 is occupied principally by white or yellowish limestone, varying in texture from 

 lithographic stone to soft chalk. The more compact beds closely resemble the 

 secondary limestones of the Ionian Islands, and like them contain nodules and 

 layers of black flint and quartz resinite. From this resemblance we were at 

 first inclined to refer the compact limestone near Smyrna to the secondary 

 series, but after a close search Mr. Hamilton and myself succeeded in finding- 

 lacustrine shells (see p. 402) which indicate a tertiary epoch. The flints and 

 quartz resinite exhibit an analogy to those in the lacustrine deposits of Au- 

 vergne and of the Cantal, as described by Mr. Lyell and Mr. Murchisonf. 



White and greenish marls are often interstratified with the limestone, and 

 are most abundant in the central parts of the area between Boudjah and 

 Sedikeui. About two miles north-east of the latter place the marls contain 

 traces of vegetable remains, and are accompanied by extensive beds of gravel, 

 which both alternate with and overlie them. These gravel beds much re- 

 semble the ancient drift or alluvium of England, but are merely a local portion 

 of the lacustrine deposit. They contain rolled pebbles of nummulitic limestone 

 and schist, derived from the surrounding; mountains, also fragivients of red 

 trachyte similar to that which occurs, en masse, near Smyrna. 



As is usual with the lacustrine basins of Asia Minor, tlie beds of limestone 

 and marl pass into conglomerate as they approach the foot of the surrounding 

 mountains. The southern boundary of this formation near Trianda consists 

 almost wholly of gravel imbedded in yellow clay. 



The pebbles of trachyte, in the central parts of the formation, appear to 

 prove that, at this point, the lacustrine deposits were continued after the erup- 

 tion of trachyte, which overlies them near Smyrna. The bed of the lake being 

 probably lowest in the centre, water might lodge there, after the main body 



* The author of "Sketches of Turkey " calls them limestone rocks, but on the application of 

 acid not the slightest effervescence takes place. 



t Annales des Sciences Naturelles, 1828. 

 VOL. V. SECOND SERIES. 3 F 



