118 Notices of Memoirs — Manchester Geological Society. 



Beginning with the mines of Cluchlier, near Valdeblore, the whole 

 structure of the mountain appears to consist of a series of red 

 schists, alternating with beds of white sandstone passing into 

 quartzite, the mass being several hundred yards in thickness and 

 resting on massive aggregations of gneiss, which come to the surface 

 at Millefonts, and are there found to be prolific in veins of iron ore. 

 The strata of schist and sandstone, which have been much meta- 

 morphosed, yield no organic remains, but in the Jurassic limestone 

 or Lias, immediately above them, are found quantities of Belemnites 

 and Ammonites. 



French geologists consider the position which these rocks ought 

 to occupy in the geological order of formations, quite an open 

 question : some class them with the shales of the Lower Lias, 

 some amongst the variegated sandstones of the Trias, and others 

 amongst the Permian rocks, in consequence of certain analogies with 

 the copper schists of Mansfeld ; whichever may be their true position, 

 the strata in question are eminently metalliferous, and the whole 

 series occupies an extensive area in the "Alpes Maritimes" extend- 

 ing over forty or fifty miles of country. 



With reference to the rich ores, they are chiefly Phillipsite, which 

 is found mixed with certain proportions of sulphide and carbonate 

 of copper. The usual gangues are clay-slates and quartz ; but there 

 are also found in them accidental fragments of other minerals, such 

 as sulphate of baryta, fluor spar, specular iron ore, and chlorite. 



Immediately to the north of the village of Eimplas, and on the 

 opposite slope of the mountain called Cluchlier, another formation 

 of copper has been discovered. Mr. Eeid considers that these two 

 deposits of copper, though differing greatly in character, will ulti- 

 mately be found to be identical. It is well, however, to remark that 

 the Eimplas formation partakes much more of the nature of that 

 found in the Cornish copper mines than of that of Cluchlier. 



Geologically considered, the enclosing rocks are precisely the 

 same as those of Cluchlier. Several metalliferous and carbonaceous 

 deposits crop out on the side of the mountain ; and both here and at 

 Cluchlier in the valley of La Bonlinette, are found two distinct beds 

 of anthracite coal, of an excessively sulphureous nature. These 

 coals do not appear in either case to be conformable with the red 

 schists forming the enclosing rocks of the copper formation, but to 

 belong to the Jurassic series. 



About three to four miles north of the villages of La Bouline, La 

 Eoche, and the Cluchlier mines is situated the mine of Millefonts. 

 Numerous outcrops of rich iron ores are traceable, by excavations 

 crosscutting several yards of ore in eight distinct veins. 



The minerals present two principal varieties, viz., micaceous 

 specular iron ore, and compact red hematite. 



These ores are very pure, and treated in a charcoal crucible have 

 yielded seventy-two per cent, of iron. 



On the western portion of this district a regular vein of massive 

 galena, mixed with zinc blende, has been opened, with about five 

 inches thickness of ore enclosed in gneiss passing into mica schist. 



