12 On certain Newer Deposits in Sicily, 



tains a few nodules and veins of calcareous spar, and in many 

 places numerous casts of shells, which have been converted into 

 spar^ and whose general outlines only can now be discerned. 

 ■Belemnites, however, are distinguishable. There are several 

 iother high hills to the south of Cefalu, which also consist of 

 limestone. 



• To the eastward of Cefalu we find nothing but sandstone 

 and its accompanying shales, and the scenery consequently now 

 acquires a new character, for, instead of a fertile, undulating, 

 cultivated tract along the shore, backed by a lofty range of 

 peaked mountains, with bare sides and rugged summits, the 

 land rises at once boldly from the sea, and steep rounded hills 

 overtop each other in succession, until the loftiest reach an alti- 

 tude of several thousand feet, the whole being covered with 

 trees, or with a coarse shrubby vegetation. 



The sandstone is composed of large grains of quartz, gene- 

 rally of a white colour on its fresh fracture, with little or no 

 cement. The shale is of a grey or bluish colour, sometimes 

 contains a little mica or sand, and breaks naturally into rhom- 

 boidal fragments. The strata of the sandstone have nearly the 

 same dip as that of the limestone in the neighbourhood of Cefalu, 

 by which they are overlaid, at least as far as I could ascertain, 

 by observing their exposed strata from some distance. I made 

 their direction to be about S. 20° W. near their junction with the 

 limestone, but this appeared to vary farther to the east. 



From the Castetlo di Tusa on the northern coast across the Cen- 

 tral Range of Mountains to Leoiiforte. 



My route from the Castello di Tusa was up the great valley 

 of Petinnea to Mistretta, across the Monte di Castelli to Nico- 

 sia, and thence nearly in a straight line to Leonforte. The 

 valley of Petinneo runs nearly due north among hills of the 

 great sandstone formation, which here consist of sandstone and 

 shale, with a few beds of limestone. The general direction of 

 "the strata is towards same point between S. and W., and their 

 dip varies. This valley contains an immense accumulation of 

 diluvium, which is also seen on the summits of many hills, 

 having an elevation of several hundred feet above the river. 



