18 On Terrestrial or Epigclc Deposits 



bottom of all the ancient steep shores of Greece, by calcareous 

 fragments of all sizes, united by the calcareous and ferruginous 

 cement of which we have spoken. Its characters resemble the 

 detritic more than the alluvial deposits ; it rests on the already 

 denuded surface of the tertiary soil, and supports genuine allu- 

 vions of an age more recent, though anterior to the present pe- 

 riod. Those much less ferruginous, form the regular and hori- 

 zontal banks below which flow the beautiful springs of the Ayani 

 and Slavo-Choico (Amyclee) . On the surface of this last deposit, 

 and especially in the excavations which furrow it, we find, at 

 the opening of the gorges of Mistra and Paroria, a soil violently 

 transported or washed away from its original place, — a real di- 

 luvium. It is composed of a loose mass of a greyish colour, 

 formed of fragments of schistose rocks and quartzose sand, in- 

 cluding rocks of anagenites, frequently many feet in diameter. 

 This agglomerate is strikingly contrasted by its colour and nature 

 (it is not effervescent) with the ancient alluvions formed of cal- 

 careous debris and ochrcous earth, in the midst of which it rests 

 in the bed of the Pontahmonia, and even in the town of Mistra. 

 The boulders, scattered in great numbers on the surface of the 

 soil, are distributed in rows, proceeding from the opening of the 

 pass to a distance of 1500 or 2000 metres, and cannot fail to 

 rivet the attention, as much by the beauty of the rock (green 

 anagenite with rose-quartz) as well as by the foreign aspect they 

 have in the midst of the alluvium of the valley. We mentioned, 

 in the description of the ancient soils of the Morea, (chapter iii. 

 p. 100.) that these boulders proceeded from the summits of the 

 chain, where they form beds in the midst of a formation of talcose 

 marbles, and that the ancients employed them in making mill- 

 stones. Many of these ancient millstones, either broken or 

 rough-hewn, has enabled us to discover, in the lower part of the 

 gardens of Mistra, the position of the town of Aleisia, where, ac- 

 cording to Pausanias, the millstone was invented. 



This phenomenon of boulders does not appear to be limited to 

 the pass of Mistra ; we have found some of them, composed, 

 however, of limestone or quartz, even below Amyclae. It is 

 evident, beyond all doubt, that they have been thrown into the 

 plain by narrow openings in the passes, at a time which cannot 



