68 M. CoRDiER OK the Mountain of 



consequence of the successire destruction of their original 

 points of support. The superposition is the less equivocal, 

 as whenever it may be verified^ the strata of the two rocks 

 are seen tending to cut each other at angles more or less 

 approaching a right angle. 



The composition of the secondary rocks presents a 

 contrast equally striking. The following may be distin- 

 guished : 



1. Micaceous sandstones of a grey colour, composed in a 

 great measure of large fragments of quartz and granitic slaty 

 rocks; they are very hard, and well cemented. 



2. Red fine grained micaceous sandstone, possessing a very 

 compact texture. 



3. Red, green, and grey argillaceous schist, commonly 

 covered with small scales of grey or white mica, placed in 

 the direction of the laminae. 



4. Hardened schistose clays, sometimes altogether soft ; 

 they are greyish or greenish white, or even reddish brown. 



5. Compact limestone, of a scaly fracture, of a dark grey 

 colour, sometimes a little greenish ; it is often mixed with 

 portions of green schist, and suddenly with some particles of 

 niica. It has no bituminous odour ; M. Cordier was unable 

 to discover any traces of marine bodies in it, not only in the 

 environs of Cardona, but also in the other places in Cata- 

 lonia where it occurs. It is nevertheless probable that it 

 contains them, though they are extremely rare. 



6. Argillaceous limestone, of a grey or greenish colour, 

 often abounding in bunches of mica, without bituminous 

 smell, shelley, apd affording but rarely very slight remains 

 of carbonized vegetables. 



These different rocks alternate indifferently with each 

 other, but in such a manner that the sandstones predominate 

 in the inferior part of the system, and the limestone ia 

 the upper. 



Thus, as has been said, these rocks not only constitute 

 the environs of Cardona, but also a great part of the surface 

 pf Catalonia. They occur every where with the same cha- 



