ENVIRONS OF NICE. 435 
washed from the surface, and leaves the fragments like a heap 
of gravel. This broken and fragmented state of the limestone, 
so far as I have been able to observe, is more prevalent on the 
outskirts and surfaces of the hills, than in places which have 
been worn down by the action of rivers; and in the neighbour- 
hood of Nice it is entirely peculiar to the first limestone. 
All the cements are more or less argillaceous, and if I may 
except an occasional appearance of pyrites, and now and then 
the occurrence of shells, I did not observe any other extra- 
neous admixture. The appearance of shells, however, in the 
paste which agglutinates the fragments of the first limestone, is 
a very curious igaae They must have existed, possibly alive, 
but certainly, or at least in all probability, in a recent state, 
when this agglutination took place, and have been drawn in 
along with the cement. It is a fact highly deserving attention, 
pacicalacly when the shells are found at a poe tees eleva- 
tion. I remember being much surprised at finding some mi- 
nute shells included in “the brescia near my hetero: ; but up- 
on these, as the paste was so unusually superabundant, and 
as the spot was not exposed in a very satisfactory manner, I did 
not conceive I had any sufficient ground to speculate. 
I have lately had an opportunity of visiting my friend Mr 
Rawuinson Barcray in London. It was in company with this 
gentleman I made most of my excursions in the vicinity of 
Nice. From among the specimens he had collected after my 
departure, he gave me one he had detached from near the sum- 
mit of Mount Cao. This specimen is not only remarkable, from 
the situation it was found in, but from the circumstance of shells 
it contains being derived from very different origins. Accord- 
ing to Captain Brown, one has every appearance of the Turbo 
Fontinalis ; the second, is only the portion of a reversed shell, 
which appears to be part of the Bulla Hypnorum, retaining its 
colour and lustre, in a most extraordinary degree. Both these 
312 are 
