Br. Du Riche Preller — The Carrara Marble District. 563 



schists, on the other hand, together with cipollini and nodulous 

 limestone, constitute an outer belt, forming, among others, the 

 summits of Sagro, Pisanino, Tambura, Fiocca, and Sumbra, while 

 the rugged crests of Pizzo d'TJcello, Garnerone, and Altissimo are — 

 in the last-named case in a reverse flexure — composed of grezzoni. 

 In the anticlinal folds of Monte Maggiore — a marble spur of Monte 

 Sagro — and of Monte Sella, as well as in the syncline of Monte 

 Corchia, the principal marble zone reaches to the very summits. 

 Pania della Croce, on the other hand, is, in its upper strata, composed 

 of Liassic bluish-grey limestone. 



VI. The Marble Beds. 



The lenticular marmiferous masses of the Apuan Alps are composed 

 of the four principal groups shown in the sketch-plan (Plate I). 

 The first and largest of these embraces. the bulk of the Carrara and 

 Massa, as also the Altissimo, Ami, Sumbra, and Tambura beds. The 

 second group adjoins the first near Monte Altissimo, in the Seravezza 

 division, and thence extends to Monte Corchia and to the end of the 

 Stazzema division. These two groups belong entirely to the principal 

 marble zone directly overlying the Middle Trias grezzoni. The 

 third and fourth groups, on the other hand, belong to the upper 

 marble zone, the third group forming the lenticular mass of Crestola 

 and Betogli in the Carrara division adjoining the principal zone, 

 while the fourth group comprises the smaller, isolated lenticular beds 

 of Monte Botondo, Trambiserra, Capella, and Costa in the Serra and 

 Vezza valleys of the Seravezza division, as also the outlying Brugiona 

 and Campaccio beds in the Carrara and Massa divisions. The Crestola 

 and Betogli beds of Carrara are separated from the principal marble 

 zone by nodulous and banded limestone ; the isolated lenticular masses 

 of the fourth group are all intercalated between the schists, cipollini, 

 and cavernous grezzoni of the upper series. 



The varieties and gradations of marble which compose the four 

 groups are substantially the same in all the three divisions. The 

 great bulk of marble is in all cases the ordinary white and highly 

 crystalline, from bianco chiaro (clear white) to the more common 

 yellowish and bluish, representing about 75 per cent of the total, 

 while the statuary proper represents about 10 per cent, and the rest 

 of 15 per cent is made up of the dark and pale blue bardiglio, the 

 blue and violet-veined, and the variegated breccia varieties. 1 



1 The total annual output of the practically inexhaustible quarries (over 600) 

 of the whole district now reaches 400,000 tons of marble in blocks and for slabs, 

 tiles, ornamental and sculptural purposes, of which Carrara represents about 66, 

 Massa 14, and the Versilia 20 per cent. The 150 saw-mills in the three valleys 

 consume about 130,000 tons of Viareggio sand per annum, almost as much as 

 the total output of sawn marble. The wastage of marble in quarrying and 

 in the other operations amounts to about 10 per cent of the total. 



The term " Sicilian Marble" mentioned in a recent paper (Geol. Mag., 

 1915, p. 290) is not used in the district, much less is it a geological term. 

 It is an obvious and purely commercial misnomer, dating from the time of 

 Napoleon I's embargo on exports to England, when Carrara marble was shipped 

 from Leghorn first to Sicily and thence to England under the above alias. 



The marble beds of Carrara worked by the Romans are those of Eavaccione, 

 Canal Grande, and Fantiscritti, chiefly for colossal statues, columns, and other 



