46 Drs Daubeny on the Geology of Sicily. 
Should my inference appear — warranted by the- 
above considerations, it w it b be borne out, at least, by the 
fact of the identity of this careihicion with the mart of ftaly, 
described by Brocchi,* which that able geologist seems to 
to have good grounds for referring to the same recent period. 
The greater part of the country, at the foot of the Appenines, 
rasa. I it would appear, of a calcareous sandstone, and of a 
r bluish marl. The recent origin of the latter is 
evinced cy the trunks of trees buried in it, and preserved 
y , by the leaves of ie bi and skeletons of 
fish im which ‘the dried muscular part may be recognised, 
nd by the immense number of shells retaining all se their 
aS, matters and colour, and sometimes even thes 
‘It contains, like the bios: clay of Sicily, beds of gol 
which is here of a liver colour, and which, according to our 
author, has been sublimed; thus giving rise to the produc- 
tion of the yellow variety, also seen in the marl of Italy, dis- 
tributed through the cavities of the rock. Like'the blue clay 
of cazent, it Bes rise to disengagements of inflammable 
gas, as near ena.t -It contains mineral pitch, amber, 
sulphate of lime, both massive and crystallized, sulphate of 
strontian, and sulphate of barytes. Common salt abounds in 
the marl of Italy, asin that of Sicily, which is’ proved by the 
arse upaneny 80 Common in the vicinity of Cesena, Sienna, and 
“The description pees by Brocehi, of the calcareo-arena- 
ceous breccia, which accompanies the marl of Italy, corres- 
ponds equally with what I have observed respecting that,of 
Sicily, and strengthens the probability that the two formations 
are identical. 
ve now to describe a series of rocks, which cecdpy the 
southern portion of the island, extending from Cape Passero, 
(formerly Cape Pachynus,) to the Lake Lentini, where they 
are interrupted by a diluviel tract, termed the Piano di Ca- 
tania, but are seen again northward of that district, near 
* Vide Bevechs Eoncholege Subappenina. 
_+, These, phenomena are called Salses, or Air-Volcanoes. Is it possi- 
ble that the inflammable gas of the Pietra Mala, between Florence and 
‘Bologna, may have originated from the same stratum, and have my 
its way —_ meres in the older rocks, to the summit of the moun 
whence it escapes ? 
