86 EXCURSIONS IN MADEIRA 



end of the Mytilus lithophagus, of a soloi, moulds of various- 

 sized venuses ; a voluta ; a turritella ; a conus, like that at Lisbon, 

 the peden multiradiatm, and the pecten glaber, (neither of which 

 species, I beheve, have before been found in a fossil state) and 

 the fragment of a large white pecten, apparently the p. maximus. 

 Some of the cardia were imbedded with the valves thrown open, 

 and presented ridges like the ligaments, and even the orange 

 colour of several of the pectines was preserved, and there were 

 several impressions like mxce^. This limestone afforded no odour 

 when struck. I found a beautiful fossil nearer the beach, which 

 appears to me to be an echinanthus\ perhaps it had fallen from 

 above, with some of the fragments of this limestone, which, 

 with the other, supplies the kilns of Funchal. Above this shelly 

 limestone was about six feet of a fine-grained, indurated sandstone, 

 deposited in layers, with projecting ledges, and acquiring a sco- 

 riaceous appearance, and dark-grey colour on the outer surface, 

 from exposure to the atmosphere, but presenting an orange-brown 

 within, and effervescing. On this rested a conglomerate, about 

 fifty feet deep, of nodules of wakke, of a lesser portion of the 

 orange-coloured ferruginous sand, and of small fragments of wakke, 

 emerging like nail-heads, and coated (with the exception of the 

 upper surface) with an indurated grey clay ; which also lines 

 small cavities in a mammiUated form. No part of this con- 

 glomerate effervesced, but it was covered by a shallow horizontal 

 bed of sandstone, of the same nature as that above the fetid 

 limestone. 



Through all these different horizontal masses, (that is, from the 



^ The solenes, cardia, and pectines, may be said, from their greater abundance, to 

 characterize this rock. The calcareous brecciaa of Araya, near Cumana, contain 

 solenes, ■pectines, and amfullarice, (Humboldt, Relation Historique, I. 2, c. 5) ; the 

 latter are only found in the sandstone at Porto Santo. 



' An affinis, e. cucurbites i 



