I climbed up the steep face of crumbled matter with some difficulty, as
the sharply inclined surface descended with me, emitting a peculiar
metallic clink like masses of broken porcelain. On arrival at the top I
remarked that only a few inches of vegetable mould covered a stratum of
white marl about a foot thick, and this had been pierced in many places
by the heat that had fused the marl and converted it into a clinker or
sharply-edged white slag, mixed with an ochreous yellow and bright red.
I had never met with anything like this singular example of igneous
action upon marls. In the neighbourhood there were considerable masses
of the same clinker-like material exhibiting a honeycombed appearance,
that would have been well adapted for millstones. The natives informed
me that all the millstones of the northern coast were imported from
Athens. I had heard while at Kythrea that the stones for the very
numerous mills of that neighbourhood were supplied from Alexandretta,
and that none of native origin were employed. There can be no doubt that
some of the specimens I examined of this material combined the
requirements of extreme hardness, porosity, and sharpness of interior
edges around the honeycombed cavities. I walked over the mountain, and
quickly lost the marl in masses of plutonic rocks that had been upheaved
and entirely occupied the surface.
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