Geology of part of Asia Minor. 589 



N.W. or N.N.W., instead of the S. andS.W. This anticlinal dip is occa- 

 sioned by a mass of fine-grained grey granite^ which rises in the Castle Hill, 

 immediately behind Kodj-hissar. (Sect. 3 and 7.) The granite penetrates the 

 sandstone, sending forth veins or filaments, which gradually thin out. Fur- 

 ther eastward, there appears to be a still greater mass of granite, also of pos- 

 terior origin to the red sandstone. 



About a mile N.W. of Kodj-hissar and at the very edge of the plain, I found 

 some detached portions of the horizontal white limestone, which forms the 

 central plain of Asia Minor. They rest unconformably against the sloping 

 sides of the sandstone, and in some places fill hollows in the rugged surfaces 

 of the upturned edges, (Sect. 2 & 7.); in others they even cap the hills on 

 each side of the valley which opens to the eastward, a short way to the north 

 of the village. The hills immediately behind Kodj-hissar consist of brown and 

 yellow sandstone, shale, and grit, some of the beds of which are extremely hard, 

 while others are conglomeratic. The general dip is towards theN. W. 20°or25°, 

 but in consequence of the protrusion of the granite, the beds are much dis- 

 turbed ; in one place, however, they were almost horizontal. The principal 

 rock consists of a greyish brown grit, and soft brown laminated sandstone. 

 Where it is in contact with the veins of granite, it is much hardened and slightly 

 altered. In some of the upper sandstones of these hills, I found thin layers or 

 bands of gravel and loose pebbles, amongst which were some resembling the 

 grey granite just mentioned. It would, therefore, appear that all the granites 

 of this district do not belong to the same period. On some of the sandy shales 

 and lamellar sandstones, I observed slight impressions, like those of fucoid stems 

 in the shales of the coal-measures, or the Alpine limestone near Trieste. 



Before leaving the district of the Salt Lake, I would mention the remarkable 

 coincidence, that the extensive beds of rock salt on the borders of Pontus and 

 Galatia, which have been quarried from the time of Strabo until the present 

 day, occur in a precisely similar formation. I visited them in 1836, and 

 found troughs or small basons of rock salt horizontally stratified, resting upon 

 the perpendicular upturned edges of red and brown sandstone conglomerates. 

 The strike of these vertical beds is from N.E. to S.W., and as far as I could 

 judge they are situated directly N.E. from Kodj-hissar, and consequently the 

 Salt Lake is in the direct prolongation of their strike. I have but little doubt, 

 that the formation is continuous from one locality to the other, or almost half 

 across this part of the peninsula of Asia Minor ; and I was also told, that other 

 mines of rock salt (Kaiya touz maden) occur in the intervening district. 



I will now describe the formations which I observed between the Salt Lake 

 of Kodj-hissar and Caesarea, situated at the northern foot of the trachytic 

 mountain of Argaeus. 



4g2 



