of Mont de la Moliere. 9 



is a sandy deposit, containing rocks of the first formation ; the 

 second is a greenish-gray and very fragile molasse sandstone, 

 containing no fossils. The two rocks constitute the upper bed 

 of a much harder molasse^ occurring nine feet lower down. 

 The calcareous sandstone, which is very hard, contains marine 

 shells of the genera Venus, Tellina, and Pynda; among which 

 terrestrial and fluviatile shells are found, belonging to the 

 genera Helix, Planorbzs, Lymnea, Cyclostoma, &c. Here also 

 a ferrugmous sand is observed mixed with stems and roots 

 highly impregnated with iron, emitting a vegetable odour when 

 burnt. 



Before we reach Mont de la Moliere, we arrive at Haut- 

 Mont, a hill composed, beneath the vegetable soil, of a hard 

 and brown calcareous sandstone, in which no fossil occurs, 

 with the exception of a lignite, susceptible of a high polish. 

 Beneath this rock, occurs one which differs from the pre- 

 ceding, both in its nature and the substances it contains ; it is 

 a kind of conglomerate {nagel-Jluh) formed of small rounded 

 pebbles, of compact limestone, whitish flint {silex), siliceous 

 sand, and compact felspar (eiirite), strongly cemented by a 

 substance, entirely calcareous, the interstices of which are 

 filled with small scales of siliceous carbonate of lime, which 

 effervesce in nitric acid, and strike fire with steel. This con- 

 glomerate alternates with a molasse sandstone on which it 

 rests ; mill-stones are made of it, and it constitutes a great part 

 of the high land between Vreissens, Correvon, Ogens and 

 Combremont, the environs of Estavayer, and extends from 

 thence to beyond the eastern shore of the lake of Neufchatel. 

 After an hour's journey, we arrive at the highest point of Mont 

 de la Moliere; a hill situated in the Canton of Fribourg, on 

 the south of Estavayer, near the lake of Neufchatel. The 

 summit is shaded by trees, from the centre of which an old 

 ruined tower rises; it is 10J8 English feet above the Lake 

 of Geneva, and 2220 English feet above the Mediterranean 

 Sea. It is composed of a very solid compact sandstone, which 

 lias been long worked for millstones. The quarry, thirty feet 

 deep, is worked in such a manner that the direction of the 

 beds can be easily observed ; their inchnation, from S. W. to 

 N.E. is inconsiderable. These beds, of a blueish colour, are 

 composed of thin seams intimately connected together, and 

 contain the fossils about to be noticed. 



The abundance of these fossils is the first thing that strikes 



us in this part of the mountain ; we cannot raise a specimen 



of rock without meeting with them; this profusion is not 



however the same every where. The bones which do not 



New Series. Vol. 2. No. 7. July 1827. C appear 



