DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.5541#0345
Chap, xix.]
GEOLOGY.
315
rough and stony road; soon after nine we reached the
hanks of the Kirketchit Chai, or the river of forty passages,
so called because, as I was told, we were to cross it at least
forty times. Having reached the opposite side, we halted
on the bank under the shade of some gigantic plane-trees;
from thence we continued S.W. by S. for several miles
along the river-banks, constantly crossing from one side
to the other, and sometimes riding along the bed of the
river. The steep hills on either side were well wooded,
and many saw-mills had been erected for preparing the
planks, which are conveyed to Gherseh for exportation;
others are split and used as shingles for roofing. The
banks afforded several sections of the different strata, con-
sisting of blue shale and limestone, dipping N. by E. 40°,
with a few beds of sandstone, some of which were much in-
durated, resembling compact Lydian stone or jasper, with
a conchoidal fracture. After ascending the valley about
three miles from our halting place, we suddenly came upon
a mass of trap rock in immediate junction with vertical
beds of altered sandstone, and in a state of decomposition.
It again appeared in the river-bed about a mile higher up,
en manse, near a lonely wooden mosque on the left bank.
Our road still continued along the valley, occasionally
ascending the hills on either side, or winding through the
low wooded grounds which skirt its banks. A mile farther
was a good section of the altered sandstones overlying
the trap rock; this sandstone was horizontally stratified,
and almost altered to jasper, the upper beds being less
altered than those below, and retaining the granular ap-
pearance of sandstone. It appears, in cooling to have
assumed a columnar structure, vertical fissures penetrating
all the beds. The trap rock below completely resembled
that described above, but exfoliated in decomposing,
whereas the former separated into rhomboidal fragments.
Farther up the valley I found the same succession of lime-
stone, sandstone, and shale beds, dipping to the south, first
almost vertical, then from 50° to 60°, and farther on only 35°
GEOLOGY.
315
rough and stony road; soon after nine we reached the
hanks of the Kirketchit Chai, or the river of forty passages,
so called because, as I was told, we were to cross it at least
forty times. Having reached the opposite side, we halted
on the bank under the shade of some gigantic plane-trees;
from thence we continued S.W. by S. for several miles
along the river-banks, constantly crossing from one side
to the other, and sometimes riding along the bed of the
river. The steep hills on either side were well wooded,
and many saw-mills had been erected for preparing the
planks, which are conveyed to Gherseh for exportation;
others are split and used as shingles for roofing. The
banks afforded several sections of the different strata, con-
sisting of blue shale and limestone, dipping N. by E. 40°,
with a few beds of sandstone, some of which were much in-
durated, resembling compact Lydian stone or jasper, with
a conchoidal fracture. After ascending the valley about
three miles from our halting place, we suddenly came upon
a mass of trap rock in immediate junction with vertical
beds of altered sandstone, and in a state of decomposition.
It again appeared in the river-bed about a mile higher up,
en manse, near a lonely wooden mosque on the left bank.
Our road still continued along the valley, occasionally
ascending the hills on either side, or winding through the
low wooded grounds which skirt its banks. A mile farther
was a good section of the altered sandstones overlying
the trap rock; this sandstone was horizontally stratified,
and almost altered to jasper, the upper beds being less
altered than those below, and retaining the granular ap-
pearance of sandstone. It appears, in cooling to have
assumed a columnar structure, vertical fissures penetrating
all the beds. The trap rock below completely resembled
that described above, but exfoliated in decomposing,
whereas the former separated into rhomboidal fragments.
Farther up the valley I found the same succession of lime-
stone, sandstone, and shale beds, dipping to the south, first
almost vertical, then from 50° to 60°, and farther on only 35°