and the Phenomena accompanying their Elevation. 27 



in the plains of L'Abresse, and it is also clearly contemporaneous 

 with the bone-breccias, which I have shewn to have been formed 

 after the tertiary period, but before that of the last great con- 

 vulsion, by which a large part of Sicily was elevated. 



It now only remains for us to shew, that the principal chain 

 of Sicily was elevated after the deposit of this conglomerate, in 

 order to make the analogy between it and the principal chain of 

 the Alps complete. For this purpose we have only to study 

 the relations of the diluvium with the conglomerate, and we every- 

 where find that the former occupies the bottom of the valleys 

 which cut through the latter ; and since the diluvium on both 

 sides of the chain can be traced up to its highest parts, and con- 

 sists of fragments of all its rocks, we must conclude, that the 

 conglomerate was elevated either before, or at the same time 

 with the diluvium, and not after it, in which case, the latter 

 would have been found elevated in the same way. We may al- 

 so refer the great blocks of limestone which cover the bone de- 

 posit of Santo Ciro, and those also on the west side of the bay 

 of Palermo, to the same conclusion, and they must therefore 

 have been formed exactly at the same time that that coast was 

 raised up above the sea. 



In the plain of Palermo, and along a great part of the north 

 coast, the tertiary strata are perfectly horizontal, as far as the 

 base of the dolomite hills ; but in the valley of the Oretus,*and 

 in that between the capes of Melicia and Delle Mandre, they 

 are considerably inclined to the horizon, and have a direction 

 nearly parallel to that of the western Alps, which Elie de Beau- 

 mont has shewn to have been elevated immediately after the de- 

 posit of the tertiary formation. Nearly the same direction may 

 be observed in many of the beds near Mistretta and Nicosia, 

 intersecting the more general direction, which is that of the chain 

 itself; but as no tertiary beds occur there, the influence of these 

 disturbances upon them cannot be observed, its 



I shall now add a few words in regard to the age of the older 

 formations. Considering, for the reasons already mentioned, 

 that the coarse limestone beds with recent shells belong to the 

 upper part of the tertiary series, the extensive formation of cre- 

 taceous limestones which immediately succeeds, will belong to 

 the lower part of the same series. It probably contains some 



