GEOLOGY OF ASIA MINOR. 207 



logical Society) offered fresh contributions to our 

 knowledge of the geology of the Taurus. 



From these various and extended researches it 

 would appear that the great mass of Western Asia 

 is composed of the Scaglia, or Alpine, or Appe- 

 nine Limestone, as it has variously been called : 

 that this formation, usually considered as second- 

 ary and of the cretaceous epoch, but regarding 

 the age of which we have taken a more extended 

 view, is chiefly developed in the southern parts of 

 the country ; that in the north it is replaced by 

 mica slates and saccharine marbles, similar to 

 those of the Cyclades and parts of Greece, con- 

 sidered by some geologists (as Mr. Strickland) as 

 altered rocks of an age long anterior to the time 

 of formation of the scaglia ; by others (with whom 

 Mr. Hamilton is inclined to side) as possibly only 

 the scaglia itself altered, an opinion to which, 

 after having seen the aspect of these rocks in 

 Paros, Naxia, and the neighbouring isles, we are 

 inclined to subscribe. In Central and Northern 

 Asia Minor are igneous districts of several ages, 

 the history of which have been admirably made 

 out by the authors quoted. In many of these 

 the lavas are of date apparently long posterior to 

 any volcanic rocks met with by us in the coun- 



