in tJie Province of Granada. 367 



from five to seven yards in diameter ; and the following section 

 of one of these will show the nature of the deposit. 



1. Two yards alluvial earth, with a few small fragments of 

 the white crystalline limestone that forms the adjacent moun- 

 tain. 



2. Seven yards of a brownish and bluish tenacious argillace- 

 ous loam, which makes a momentary effervescence with nitric 

 acid. Irregular lines separate the mass into fragmentary pieces, 

 which, on fracture, exhibit a somewhat conchoidal surface. Ma- 

 rine remains begin to show themselves here, but they are very 

 rare and small. Little groups of minute almost microscopic 

 Lenticulites (Sowerby), having a pearly and brilliant lustre, 

 are discovered in some places, and in others numerous minute 

 moulds are observed, lined with whitish decomposed shelly mat- 

 ter, indicating the former presence of other testaceous remains. 

 Small pieces of fibrous gypsum are also occasionally met with in 

 this portion of the deposit. 



3. Five yards of a light sandy loam. In this * portion of the 

 deposit, tertiary marine organic remains are abundant, viz. nu- 

 merous entire, and fragments of Ostreje, some retaining a pearly 

 lustre, — also specimens of Venus, Natica, Triton nodiferum, 

 Dentalium, teeth of the shark, and two entire vertebral columns 

 of Delphinus, were found in this mass. 



4. A horizontal argillaceous sandstone, about six inches thick, 

 and very hard in the centre, in which one or two shells were ob- 

 tained, but so finely-imbedded that they could not be got out en- 

 tire. The total depth of the deposit, therefore, is about 36 feet ; 

 and, from the above account of a shaft sunk through it, it appears 

 that, with respect to its materials, the order of superposition is ex- 

 actly the reverse of what is observed close to Malaga, the argilla- 



• Mr Sowerby was so good as to examine the fossils from Alaurin and 

 identified the following : 



Strombus Gallus. Lucina incrassata. Lam. 



Kanilla gigantea. Turritella incrassata. Crag. Min. 



Dentalium sexangulare. Con. 51. 



striatum. Pleurotoma Colon, var. M. C 146. 



Pleurotoma Colon. Natica tyrena ? 



For the identification of the vertebrae and teeth, I am indebte<1 to the kind- 

 ness of Mr Clift. 



