Hock Salt at Cardona, in Spain. 59 



racters, but affect variable dips, and opposite directions; 

 these dips rarely exceed 30» or 40° ; the most highly in- 

 clined, that M. Cordier observed, are seen at Suria, a village 

 situated on the left bank of the Cardonero, two myriameters 

 [about 12| miles] below Cardona ; the limestone beds rise at 

 70° towards the N.N.E. ; they possess the peculiarity of 

 containing a bed of poor coal, one metre [about 3 ft. 3 in ] 

 thick, parallel with them. 



From the characters presented by the system of rocks 

 covering the base of the salt mountain of Cardona, M. 

 Cordier considers it as belonging to the most ancient forma- 

 tion of the secondary rocks- 

 Considering moreover that the strata composing this sys- 

 tem are not conformable to those of the salt mountain, tha,t 

 on the contrary they cut each other at iiearly right angles, 

 or as separate formations, that the superposition is evidently 

 non-conformable (transgressive), he concludes that the salt 

 and gypsum rocks of Cardona belong not only to an anterior, 

 but also to an absolutely distinct formation, and that it 

 ought to be regarded as one of the intermediate (transition), 

 series. 



In order to strengthen this important conclusion, M. 

 Cordier quotes the results of the observations he made in 

 1804 and 1809, on the position of the gypsum rocks of Mont 

 Cenis and the Little St. Bernard; results tending to prove 

 that these rocks, sometimes composed of common gypsum, 

 sometimes of anhydrous, at others epigeiie, or mixed with 

 nitrate of soda, form true beds, often very thick, which are 

 incontestably subordinate to the transition series, which 

 forms a large portion of that part of the High Alps.* 



M. Cordier afterwards treats of the imperceptible decrease 

 of the salt mountain of Cardona; he examines the confirmed 



* In a subsequent paper by M. Brochant c!e Villiers, will be found a 

 detailed account of the gypsum in the Alps, from which there are very 

 strong reasons for supposing that many, if not all of them, belong to the 

 saliferous, or new red sandstone seriei*, and are therefore secondary, 

 though the autlior does not consider thcni to be of tliat epoch. (Trans.). 



