IS Oh certain Newer Deposits in Sklly^ 



mentioned, but it is only its liighest part which has a cement of 

 lime, like that of the valley of the Simetus, the greater mass of 

 it having only a basis of loose sand. 



From Catania by way ofLentini^ Syracuse , and NotOy to Cape 



Passero. 



The plain of Catania, at the part where I crossed it, at no 

 great distance from the sea, consists of diluvial clay, similar to 

 that of the valleys of the interior, but without any pebbles or 

 rolled masses of rock. It is well seen along the River Simetus, 

 which has cut its way through it, and has thus exposed it to a 

 great depth in the form of precipitous banks. 



Bounding the south side of the plain, is a small range of low 

 hills, with even summits, which I found to be composed of 

 horizontal strata of a coarse shelly straw-coloured limestone, re- 

 sembling that on the west side of the Bay of Palermo, and con- 

 taining the same organic remains, viz. pectens, oysters, corals, 

 echini, &c. &c. Among these beds were also found some of 

 rather a different nature, but containing the same fossils. They 

 consist of a conglomerate, having a basis of a white marl, with 

 small rounded pieces of a greenish clay. 



The hills immediately behind, and to the south of Lentini, 

 consist of the same coarse shelly limestone ; in one part of which 

 I observed a few rolled fragments of cellular lava, which shew 

 that a volcano must have existed in the neighbourhood, at the 

 time of their deposite, and which would lead us to conclude that 

 the io-neous rocks, interstratified with the tertiary, are all of vol- 

 canic origin, and do not belong to the trap series, as supposed 

 by some geologists who have visited this place. 



The tertiary rocks continue the whole way from Lentini to 

 Syracuse, interstratified near the former place with volcanic 

 rocks, consisting of basalt and volcanic tufa. 



The north side of the small harbour of Syracuse, and the con- 

 tinuation of the coast to the north of it, present low cKffs of 

 tertiary rocks, abounding with shells of existing species, and 

 from the top of which the ground rises with a gentle slope to 

 an inland range of cliffs, nearly parallel to the former, and which 

 were at some former period washed by the sea, for they still ex- 

 hibit in many places a smooth surface, and numerous holes left 



