304 Geological Journey to Mount Ramazzo 



SaussLire had reinarked upon the mountain della Guardia, 

 an alternation of calcareous and serpentine layers ; whicli, 

 is perfectly analogous to what I have here described. . But 

 as such an operation could not be performed at a single jet, 

 we cannot refrain from remarking here also that nature 

 never takes into her account the operations of time. 



Of the true Variolite (Variolites viridis verus) in the same 

 Rock in tvhich it has been produced. 



As our object was to visit the quarrying of the materials 

 used in the manufacture of sulphate of magnesia upon 

 th^* highest part of Mount Ramazzo, M. Alberto Ansaldo, 

 who guided us, informed us that we must leave the bed of 

 the Charavagna, pass to the hamlet of Serra, and ascend 

 over shelving precipices into a direction opposite to that 

 of the torrent. The road, or rather the pass, was strait, 

 rapid, and slippery 3 we were surrounded on all sides by ser- 

 pentine rocks more or less green ; some were hard, others 

 S'jft : the grain of them also varied ; in some places it was 

 dry, and in others greasy and unctuous : enormous masses, 

 placed upon still huger masses, spread spontaneously, some 

 into irregular leaves more or less turned, and others into 

 striated pieces imitating asbestos : the d'lallage was distinct^ 

 in some fractures, and exhibited a silvery lustre ; in others - 

 this was not to be seen ; and in this case the heart of the 

 stone, being of a deep blackish green, presented shades of a 

 clearer green. 



We had ascended at least six hundred feet in height 

 from the hamlet of Serra; when being at this height, not 

 far from a small stream of water which runs through the 

 pass, and might serve as a point for reconnoitring, I per- 

 ceived a detached piece of serpentine, the surface of which 

 was covered with small globules of a whitish green, a little 

 projecting, and harder than the paste of the stone. I saw 

 with pleasure that it was a vavlolite not rolled nor trans- 

 ported from its place, but detached spontaneously by the 

 effect of moisture, or th«r alternation of heat and cold, from 

 an enormous mass of serpentine which was contiiruous. 



^ This 



