226 CONTRIBUTIONS 
De la Beche very justly remarks, that “all the exam- 
ples hitherto produced of deposits that can be fairly traced 
to existing springs, are relatively unimportant,” “ though 
they may lead us to understand how great geological de- 
posits may, chemically, have taken place, as the cabinet 
experiments of the chemist teach us the laws which go- 
vern nature on the large scale.”* 
We have, in the Geological Description of the Environs of 
Paris, by Brogniart, p. 274, some account of the Freshwater 
Formations, posterior to the Calcaire Grossier, which ex- 
ist in Europe. They are found in Spain, France, Eng- 
land, Switzerland, Germany, Hungary and Italy. These, 
however, are more ancient than the deposit at Syracuse. 
It is necessarry to bear in mind that these deposits are en- 
lirely distinct from that which Brogniart calls “ calcaire 
> which lies immediately over the Cal- 
lacustre inferieur,’ 
caire Grossier, in the Paris basin, contains extinct species, 
and forms there a most important stratum of the series. 
We have an example of the strata of an age contem- 
poraneous with that of Syracuse, in the valley of Elsa, in 
Tuscany. Here, Mr Lyell says, “ we meet with fresh 
water marls and travertins full of shells, belonging to 
species which now live in the lakes and rivers of Italy.” 
He tells us also, that valleys, several hundred feet deep, 
have been excavated through lacustrine beds. 
In the Geological Transactions, volume second, the 
same author mentions other calcareous deposits, which 
* Geological Manual, p. 138. 
+ Principles of Geology, vol. 3, p. 137. 
