SPRATT ON THE GULF OF SMYRNA. 157 



Ephesus. This mountain was the Corax of the ancients, and 

 attains a height of nearly 4000 feet, stretching from shore to shore 

 on both sides of the peninsula. 



The north face of this mountain is channelled by deep ravines, 

 and the intervening ridges attain a very considerable elevation, 

 almost to their terminations ; so that the whole mass rises abruptly 

 out of the plains and from the shore at its base. 



In lithological structure these ridges consist of dark-coloured 

 shales and schists, which dip at high angles (from 30 to 50 degrees) 

 round the central and most elevated part of the mountain, but the 

 rocks which compose this central nucleus I had no opportunity of 

 observing. 



At the mouth of one of the deep valleys, descending from the 

 summit of the mountain, is a hot bath, the position of which is 

 marked on the map.* Besides the spring which supplies this bath, 

 several hot jets of water rise through the sand in the bed of the 

 torrent in the ravine, in one of which the thermometer stood at 

 150° Fahr. ; and very lately in an attempt to sink a well through 

 the alluvium of the adjoining plain at the base of the mountain, 

 springs of hot water were met with at about 10 feet below the 

 surface, so that there appears to be a considerable supply of heated 

 water which deposits some mineral (apparently sulphur), and 

 escapes by a subterranean course. 



As the schists and shales appeared to be best developed in the 

 sides of the deep valley which opens behind the hot springs, I 

 ascended it for about four miles. Its sides were steep and pre- 

 cipitous, and I observed that the rocks consisted of a series of 

 brown and greenish shales and schists, interstratified with 

 quartzose grit and a hard sandstone, composed of particles of 

 quartz and mica. Sometimes compact siliceous strata occur ; and 

 not unfrequently beds and nodular masses of jasper, as well as 

 crystalline limestone. At the mouth of the ravine the dip was 

 35°; about a mile above increased to 50°, and two miles further, in 

 contact with some igneous protrusions, the schists, &c, are nearly 

 vertical. The volcanic productions in this neighbourhood appear 

 to be of three kinds, and occur near each other, within the space 

 of 200 or 300 yards, in the form of dykes, from 10 to 20 feet broad. 

 In contact with the igneous rocks the shales were much more 

 indurated than usual, and of a redder appearance on the exposed 

 surfaces. Beyond the dykes the beds assume their former dip of 

 50° to the N.N. W. 



These shaly and schistose deposits must be of very considerable 

 thickness ; at least a thousand yards of them being exposed be- 

 tween the mouth of the valley and the point to which I ascended ; 

 and, from what I was able to judge, they appeared to extend as 

 far again, but I could nowhere discover a single trace of organic 

 remains. 



The next part I examined was a ridge about three miles to the 



* See the map accompanying this memoir. 



