Geological Societi/. 371 



and marls, are succeeded by an extensive calcareous formation, which 

 is charged with many species of existing shells, the beds of which are, 

 in some places, elevated to a height of several thousand feet above the 

 level of the sea. Of still more modern date, and chiefly composed of 

 the detritus of the last-mentioned limestone, is a conglomerate, which 

 also contains recent shells, and which has been extensively perforated 

 by Lithodomi. Of similar age with this conglomerate, is a bone brec- 

 cia observed by the author in three different caves, one of which is a 

 hundred feet, and another three hundred feet above the sea. As the 

 bones belong to extinct species of the elephant, hippopotamus, &c., and 

 as they are intimately mixed up with recent sea shells, he infers, that 

 these races of large quadrupeds, now extinct, prolonged their dura- 

 tion in Sicily, after the Mediterranean became inhabited by its pre- 

 sent species of marine animals ; and he proves, by the workings of Li- 

 thodomi, that some of the breccia, as at St. Giro, was long washed 

 by the waves. The detritus of the island is divided by this author 

 into two periods, the older of which is marked by large rolled blocks, 

 and is supposed to be of the same age as the bone breccia; while the 

 smaller and younger occupies the bottoms of valleys. 



The venerable Count Montlosier, — desirous of proving to us that 

 the fire of his youth, during which he gave to the world so clas- 

 sical and original a sketch of the old volcanoes of Auvergne*, 

 still burns within him, — has sent us a lively account of the im- 

 pressions made upon him by a first visit to Vesuvius in 1813. It then 

 appeared evident to him, that the present mountain is a parasitic 

 cone, established on the flank of Somma, which he considered to have 

 been the true Vesuvius of the ancients ; and that its vast crater must 

 have been produced by one great explosion : a mode of formation to 

 which he assigns the existence of the lake-craters of the extinct vol- 

 canoes of the Eyfel and of Auvergne. 



Dr. Daubeny, having for some time paid much attention to ther- 

 mal springs, has lately published it as his opinion, that they all owe 

 their origin to volcanic agency, wliether they issue from the neigh- 

 bourhood of active and extinct foci of eruption, or upon linear fis- 

 sures and dislocations of the ancient strata, produced by expansive 

 forces during former periods of elevation. The views of this able ex- 

 positor of igneous operations, are entitled to our deepest attention: and 

 in regard to the last-mentioned class of them, it is highly gratifying 

 to observe that the numerous facts adduced by him of the source of 

 thermal waters upon lines of elevation, and at points of fractui'e, are 

 remarkably supported by the observations of M. Stifl'tf in the Duchy 

 of Nassau. Dr. Daubeny supposes that the forces which give rise to 

 volcanoes, are at work throughout the globe; and that the evolution of 

 gases and increased temperature of springs may be looked upon 

 in the light of volcanic ])ha;noraena, with the same projjriety as 

 eruptions of lava and shocks of earthquakes ; and having rejjeatedly 

 detected the presence of nitrogen gas in thermal waters, he concludes, 



• A notice of Count Monthisicr's work, as given l)y Dr. Fitton, in a former 

 Anniversary Address to the (icolot;ical Society, will be found in Piiil. Mag. 

 and Annals, No..'), vol. v. p. AG-2. — Edit. 



t Kerussac, llullvtin (lis Sciences Nalurcllcs, Juillct 18;5], p. 7—12. 



3 li '2 that 



