ENVIRONS OF NICE. 447 
hammer to break: it; elsewhere it may be dug into with a 
trowel. If carefully looked for, I believe it would be found to 
extend over a considerable portion of the peninsula, as, in 
walking along the edges of it, 1 have remarked traces of the 
same kind of sand, which I have no doubt are continuous. 
I look upon this as the last operation of the sea previous to 
its being reduced to its present level. Besides the shells and 
fragments of coral this bed contains, I found parts of the limbs 
of crustaceous animals. ' 
The last fact 1 have to notice, is not the least interesting, 
it is one which has puzzled the ingenuity of all who have 
attempted to account for it, and which still requires more 
observation in order to be satisfactorily resolved. This coun- 
try, as well as many others washed by the Mediterranean, con- 
tains different deposites of the bones of animals: these are 
usually imbedded in a red indurated clay, forming a mass 
which is distinguished by the name of the drésche osseuse. 
This conglomerate is already so well known, that it is only 
necessary ee me to notice the peculiarities reich occurred to 
myself. In this neighbourhood there are three different depo- 
sites of it, one at Cimiez, another at Ville Franche, and the third 
on the Castle Rock of Nice. The first Ihave never seen. I was 
informed that it had recently been covered over with rubbish ; 3. 
of the three it is considerably the most distant from the sea. 
That near Ville Franche is of very small extent; the paste is 
of a lively brick-red colour, and possessed of a preat degree of 
induration. The fragments of bones and teeth imbedded in it 
are extremely white and along with them are some rounded 
pebbles of limestone, and SuediOuaNTY marine shells.. In one 
_ part: of the deposite, where there are no bones, or, if any, in- 
very minute fragments, the conglomerate appears to be a 
congeries of sea shells, mixed with the spines of the Echinus. - 
ae At 
