and the PJienomena accompanying their Eievaiio7i. 21 



On the south side of the valley of the Anapus, there is ano- 

 ther example of the old conglomerate, with characters exactly 

 similar to those presented by it in the valley of the Simetus, 

 near Catania, and on the north coast. It consists of a deep de- 

 posit of rolled masses of tertiary limestone, with a few of lava 

 connected together by a loose calcareous sand, having some ap- 

 pearance of stratification, and upon which rests beds containing 

 similar rolled masses, but cemented by a hard base of lime, 

 which contains a few marine shells, and forms the whole into a 

 strong conglomerate. These beds terminate towards the plain 

 of the Anapus, in a low irregular cliff, 40 or 50 feet high, and 

 stretch many miles to the south and west ; their surface forming 

 a perfectly level and slightly elevated plain. I may mention 

 that near the edge of this cliff was situated the temple of Olym- 

 pic Jove, two only of the pillars of which, formed of tertiary 

 shelly limestone, are now erect. It is scarcely necessary to 

 point out the analogy between the different old conglomerates 

 which I have described, and the diluvial deposits of the valleys 

 of the Isere of the Rhone, and the Saone, described by Elie de 

 Beaumont under the name of Terrain de Transport Anciens. 



Beyond the deposit of conglomerate to the south, the coun- 

 try immediately along the coast gradually consists of a white 

 cretaceous limestone, which rises towards the base of a range 

 of hills running parallel to the shore, but which I had not 

 time to examine. The same white chalky-looking limestone 

 is found at Noto, associated with numerous beds of a straw- 

 coloured limestone of which nearly the whole country appears 

 to be composed It is generally very soft, but some beds of it 

 are so hard as to afford an excellent building stone, for which 

 purpose its fine texture, its light straw colour, and the ease with 

 which it is cut, render it well adapted. The only other rock 

 I observed in this neighbourhood was a red calcareous breccia, 

 conformable to, and interposed between the beds of the straw- 

 coloured limestone. These beds contain a few casts of shells 

 and echini, few of which were sufficiently perfect to enable us 

 to determine their characters, and long smooth cylindrical bodies 

 were every where very common, but in no case could I observe 

 the least trace of organization in them. I am therefore rather in- 

 dined to tliink that they may have originated from some peculiar 



