.1821.] and adjoining Parts of the Continent, ■' ?|^ 



passing, as in Lincolnshire, from brick-red to pure-white colour, 

 and containing nodules of black flint, occurs in the Subalpine 

 Hills of the Vicentino on the north of Vicenza and Verona, and 

 at Monteselice near Padua. 



2. Green Sand. — Dark sandy limestone, interspersed with 

 grains of green earth, and containing abundantly the same 

 organic remains with the green sand formation of England, 

 especially that near Folkstone. It occupies a considerable 

 extent in Savoy and Switzerland, where it rests on oolite, and 

 constitutes the most recent beds of the younger alpine lime- 

 stone, forming the summits of the Varens, Buet, Dent de 

 Morcle, and Diableretz mountains, at an elevation of 7000 or 

 8000 feet, and ranging in a line parallel to the central primitive 

 chain of Mont Blanc across Savoy from the valley of the Arve 

 to that of the Rhone. 



3. Oolite, or Jura Limestone. — The two principal varie- 

 ties of this formation are : LA compact grey marble ; 2. A 

 granular oohte ; the latter occurs abundantly in the Tyrol, 

 in the valley of the Adige below Trent, and occasionally in 

 the Saltzburg mountains ; the former prevails in Switzer- 

 land, and generally through the Alps ; near Aigle, on the 

 south-east of Vevey, it assumes the character of red com- 

 pact marble similar to that of Saltzburg; and at Roche, in 

 the same neighbourhood, it is full of organic remains resem- 

 bling those of the English coral rag ; but from the compact 

 nature of the matrix in which they are imbedded, these are 

 visible only on the surface of the weathered blocks. This last 

 observation may be applied also to a large proportion of the 

 younger alpine limestone beds in the Tyrol and Saltzburg, in 

 which the organic remains are for the most part concealed by 

 •the extreme compactness of the stone ; but, when apparent, are 

 referrible to the same classes with the oolite fossils of England. 

 Such remains are distinctly visible at Nafels, nearGlarus,in Swit- 

 zerland, and at Halstad, in Saltzburg ; where also the limestone 

 becomes partially oolitic. 



4. Lias. — The lias (like all the other formations in the Alps) 

 is destitute of its alternating beds of clay, but maintains its posi- 

 tion between the oolite and new red sandstone. At the salt 

 mines of Bex, it reposes immediately on the upper bed of sahfe- 

 rous gypsum, where it is a dark-blue compact limestone, and 

 contains ammonites, nautilites, terebratulites, and many bivalves 

 identical with those of the lias of England. 



At Halstad, it occupies a similar position between the oolite 

 and red marly sandstone that covers the saliferous limestone, 

 and is full of ammonites, belemnites, and other lias fossils. At 

 Seefelden, near Inspruck, it contains fish similar to those which 

 occur in the English lias at Lyme Regis. And at Mischelle, 

 near Trent, it may be seen dividing the oolite from the red marl 

 and new red sandstone. 



