4 Account of the 



vsea-sliore in the neighbourhood of Ancona, and a chain of low 

 hills in Apulia. In the low country, on the Mediterranean side, 

 the limestone seldom appears, being covered either by sand and 

 marl, or by volcanic matter. The whole coast on this side from 

 Mons Argentarius to Naples is a low sandy shore, shoaling gra- 

 dually into the sea to a great distance, with the exception of 

 some detached points, to be afterwards mentioned. In that part 

 of Apulia now called Puglia Pietrosa, the rocky Apulia, bare 

 limestone strata extend from the central range to the sea-shore, 

 and are only occasionally concealed by a scanty covering of ve- 

 getable soil. In planting the ohves and vines, they break the 

 stony crust with iron-bars, in order to come at an intermediate 

 layer of ochreous clay, where the roots may spread. 



The wide and extensive valleys of Foligno and Terni, and 

 the country around Otricoli, are covered with vast deposits of 

 limestone gravel, which continues as far as Civita Castcllana, 

 where it is partially covered by volcanic matter. 



At the foot of the Apennines there is a series of low hills, 

 which cover the greater part of the space comprehended between 

 the high mountains and the sea, on both sides of Italy. They 

 are distinguished not so much by their lesser elevation as by the 

 difference of their composition, and the epoch of their formation, 

 which must have been posterior to that of the Apennines ; in 

 reference to which they may be termed Tertiary Deposits. 

 They are of different degrees of elevation, sometimes rising to a 

 considerable height ; for the capital of the little republic of San 

 Marino, built upon one of them, is nearly 2000 feet above the 

 sea ; and some near Sienna are still higher. 



While the strata of the limestone mountains are always more 

 or less inclined, the materials of the sub-apennine hills lie gene- 

 rally in a horizontal position. They consist of marl, sand, and 

 gravel : they contain the trunks of trees almost in their natural 

 state, leaves of vegetables, bones of quadrupeds, skeletons of 

 fish, on which the dried flesh is still to be seen, and immense 

 quantities of shells, in which the gluten and colouring matter is 

 often preserved, and frequently the tendinous ligament which 

 unites the two shells of the bivalves remains entire; all bespeak- 

 ing an origin of much more recent date than the limestone of 

 the central chain, but of ancient date in comparison with others 



