ENVIRONS OF NICE. 439 
which, in a country so entirely. composed of limestone, is a 
very common production. 
Some deposites of gypsum likewise present themselves : it is 
of the amorphous foliated kind, and, like that of Compostello, a 
good deal stained with hematitic iron, but containing no crystals 
of quartz. ‘The most considerable bed is one in the immediate 
neighbourhood of Nice: it rests on the southern extremity of the 
hill of Cimiez, and to the north, it abuts on the first limestone. 
Over it there is little else but vegetable mould. I however 
noticed some traces of the mulatto stone, which would induce 
ene to consider it as a member of the second limestone. I 
cannot, however, determine the point, as I nowhere saw it laid 
open sufficiently. 
Such are the materials, not alluvial, of which this interesting 
country is composed. A good deal of the limestone which I 
remarked in the south of France, between Aix and the Var, . 
appeared to me, in passing rapidly over it, to be of the same 
kind as that which I have here denominated the jist, and 
which I was induced to consider as belonging to the Transition 
series. On this point, however, I speak with diffidence, as I 
have had but very little opportunity of remarking its relations 
in combination with any apparently older or contemporaneous 
rock. In quitting the country by way of the Col de Tende, 
very shortly after leaving Nice, I did not perceive, excepting 
in two mountains, and there only from a distance, any traces 
of my first limestone: the whole countr y was taken possession 
_of by the second, ‘which imperceptibly changed its internal - 
characters so much, that at Tende, I was for a time induced 
to consider it as of the older kind: it always, however, present- 
ed a striking difference in its position, being invariably highly 
inclined, and in many places contorted in a very remarkable 
degree ;—nothing short, in that respect, to the most eccentric 
convolutions of the transition rocks of St Abb’s Head. 
In 
