APPENDIX K. 
(SOUTH COAST OF THE BLACK SEA.) 
647 
circumstances as those described in the text, we think that the highly contorted, inverted and basin- 
shaped strata, which are so common on the western Uralian slopes (notably in the gorge of the river 
Tchussovaya), are best explained by the lateral pressure of the sea and sedimentary matter in the low 
country on the west, and the great uprise of the central ridge on the east, by which operation the masses 
were squeezed up between two resisting bands, and were thrown back and partially inverted. The pro- 
blems connected with this question are, in fact, various, and the inversions in each mountain chain are 
well worthy of analysis ; though it must be admitted, that great light has already been thrown upon the 
subject by the labours of Professor Dumont in Belgium and those of Professors IT. and W. Rogers in 
America. 
K. 
South Coast of the Black Sea. 
The geological colours relating to the tracts south of the Black Sea, are assigned from a perusal of the 
writings of Mr. W. Hamilton and Mr. Ainsworth (see Researches in Asia Minor, Pontus, &c., vol. i. 
p. 158 et seq., and Journal of the Roy. Geogr. Soc. vol. ix. p. 216 et seq.). It is, however, necessary to ex- 
plain, that in all that region we do not pretend to define accurately the outline of the various rock 
masses, but simply to convey an idea of their general relations. Thus, whilst we know from the re- 
searches of Mr. W. Hamilton and Mr. H. Strickland, that true Silurian rocks exist at Constantinople, 
where they are overlaid by tertiary (mioceue ?) deposits, it seems probable, that the crystalline and slaty 
rocks, perforated by much eruptive matter, which range from the eastern shores and gulfs of the Sea of 
Marmora (Mount Olympus, Ismid, &c.), are metamorphosed Silurian strata, similar to those of the Ural 
Mountains (cof Map, PI. VI.). The great mass, however, of the sedimentary deposits of Bithynia, Paph- 
lagonia and Pontus, consists of limestones, often semi- crystalline, with associated fucoid schists, sand- 
stones, &c„ which are, we apprehend, of the same age as the great outward spurs of the Caucasus 
(Circassia, &c.), and are, on the whole, of the Cretaceous age. We cannot gather from the writings of 
Hamilton or Amsworth, that the Jura formation has any existence in these regions ; all the secondary 
rocks of which appear to be referable to the Scaglia, restricting the meaning of that term to strata of 
the age of the Cretaceous system, which have assumed the Mediterranean or crystalline type. 
In the Caucasus, as in the Grimsea, the labours of M. Dubois de Montpercux have satisfactorily shown 
the presence of both these great systems, and doubtless it is possible, that in a portion of the rocky, 
elevated and broken region to the south of the Black Sea, some Jurassic fragments may be eventually 
discovered. 
The greatest interest, indeed, of this region, consists in its eastern range, or in the high plateaux of 
Khorasan, Kars and Anni, where tertiary deposits of the younger Miocene age have been heaved up by 
trachytie and other igneous rocks to heights of 5000 and 6000 feet above the sea, and where some tracts are 
so scoriaceous and volcanic, with large quantities of Obsidian, as to convey the idea of comparatively recent 
eruption. The observation of Mr. W, Hamilton, of peculiar tertiary strata at Sinope, is of great interest 
to us ; for on examining the fossils he submitted to us therefrom, we have no hesitation in saying, that 
they belong to that former great internal Mediterranean (Aralo- Caspian) of brackish water, concerning 
which we have spoken so much 1 ; and thus we learn that this grand ancient Caspian must have extended 
over a great portion of the Black Sea, as well as over the Seas of Azof, Caspian and Aral. In all these 
regions, this brackish water deposit succeeds to the oceanic miocene ; a point of very great importance in 
developing the ancient geography of this large portion of the globe. 
1 See No. 10. Map, PI. VI. and vol. i. pp. 297 et seq. 
4 o 2 
