' 
famous Hamites which Savi named Hamites Michelii; and in the same, Count Carlo 
Strozzi has lately discovered a very remarkable abundance of easily recognizable fossils, 
Inocerami, Ammonites, Crioceratites, Scaphites, &c., besides very many other fossils 
of strange and indeterminate forms, probably belonging to zoophytes and annelides. 
Some of these fossils, as for instance Gorgonia Turgionii and Nemertelites Strozzi, as 
well as numerous fucoids, reappear, both above and below the nummulitic band, in the 
Macigno limestone, in its accompanying schists, and in the Alberese limestone which 
occurs alternately with it. 
Besides the lower part of the Eocene formation, thus intimately connected with the 
eretacean system, an upper part may also be distinguished. This is chiefly argilla- 
ceous and calcareous; and a disturbance of the crust, anterior to its deposition, con- 
nected with the eruption of the ophiolite or diallagic serpentine, has occasioned a 
local unconformability of stratification between the upper and lower parts of the 
deposit. This upper Eocene formation is principally developed in a vast band on the 
northern declivity of the Apennines. On the southern side, again, it is much less so, 
or is chiefly calcareous, as in the valley of Tiberina, or else is entirely wanting. In 
this last case there is a transition also in the mineralogical character, from the Kocene 
Macigno to the Moilasse of the Miocene formation, which in every instance is con- 
stantly conformable to the underlying Eocene. It is then distinguishable only by 
the presence of the neogenic fossils. 
Three other principal mineralogical formations, besides that of the Mollasse, are 
equally referable to the Middle Tertiary or Miocene, since they underlie the indubitable 
subapennine formation, the type of the Pliocene. These are, fluviatile or estuary form- 
ations, with abundant deposits of lignite, sometimes converted into anthracite (Monte 
Bamboli); an ophiolitic rock, perfectly similar to that of the hill of Turin; anda 
coarse limestone, extremely rich in fossils. The limestone formation contains numerous 
remains of Anthracotherium and other pachydermata, of chelonians, and of plants 
(Palms), which fix for it a high relative antiquity. The Calcaire grossier, on the 
other hand, although decidedly in infraposition to the subapennine formation, and 
unconformable to this (Rosignano), contains scarcely any other fossils but those of 
the subapennine itself. 
This last, as is well known, is chiefly composed of the two mineralogical forms, 
blue clay, and yellow sand and gravel. Athough in general these last overlie the clay, 
yet their position and frequent alternations show that the two are to be looked upon 
as contemporaneous, with this difference only—that the sands constitute a littoral 
deposit, and the clays were deposited in a deeper sea. About a thousand species of 
Mollusca and Radiata, in a fossil state, are found in this formation, to which are to be 
added the Vertebrata and the plants. To this, in fact, belongs the famous bone-bed 
TRANSACTIONS OF THE SECTIONS. 81 
: of the upper part of the Val d’Arno, consisting of a lacustrine deposit, contem- 
poraneous with the marine subapennine, in which also are found bones and complete 
; skeletons of the Mastodon and other large mammalia, besides not unfrequent remains 
of Reptiles, Fishes, and Cetacea. Many casts of plants have lately been discovered as 
well in these lacustrine deposits as in the marine littoral formation; and this flora, 
decidedly Pliocene (very soon to be published), will be of the utmost importance for 
the means it will afford of comparison with the Miocene flora, and with that actually 
existing. 
With respect to the Pliocene fauna, the great richness of which has been mentioned, 
it is to be observed that every day it is found to comprise more and more of the species 
which hitherto were believed to belong exclusively to the Miocene formation, or which . 
are now actually living in other seas. 
To conclude, there is perhaps no place better adapted than Tuscany for the study 
of the Pleistocene, which is even yet in the course of formation at some points of the 
sea-coast, where waters charged with calcareous contents are still discharging them- 
selves ; whilst at a more or less considerable distance from the sea, it blends its cha- 
racters, mineralogical, stratigraphical, and paleontological, with the littoral Pliocene 
formation. In the lower part of the Pliocene formation (in some places arenaceous, 
and in others calcareous), known under the names of Twfo and of Panchina, are found 
the remains of elephants, and the fossils pre-eminently subapennine ; in the upper 
part are buried articles of human manufacture, together with shells of species still 
living in our seas, 
1857. 6 
