of Serpentine, Sfc. in the /Ipennines. 195 



These mountains present, like those on the banks of the 

 lake of Como, thin beds, extremely numerous, highlj in- 

 clined, often sinuous, even contorted and twisted in every 

 direction, but also often nearly horizontal ; the rocks com- 

 posing them vary but little : the principal or predominant 

 are : 



1st. A fissile compact limestone, of a brown, and almost 

 black colour, passing into calcareous schist, and traversed 

 by veins of spathose carbonate of lime mixed with quartz. 



2dly. A shining calcareous schist, black, and as it were 

 plastered w ith brown or greyish anthracite, and passing into 

 spangled argillaceous schist. 



3dly. A compact blackish limestone, containing greyish 

 siliceous or sandy portions, sometimes in nodules disposed in 

 the same line, sometimes in zones (descending into the valley 

 of Wender-Eck), and passing into calcareous sandstone, even 

 into quartzite (about Frutigeii). 



4thly. Spangled and blackish marly argillaceous schis.ts^ 



I do not speak of the gypsum which occurs interposed, 

 which is first seen at the Moserberg, and which, according 

 to M. de Cliarpentier, continues to Bex and its environs. 

 This circumstance, that does not occur every where, does 

 not detract from the resemblance of the rest of the formation 

 with that of the Apennines, and the examination I should 

 make of it, would lead me too far from my subject. It will 

 be remarked that all here is sandy and micaceous limestone, 

 as in the Apennines, that the colours are there not deep, but 

 that the compact rocks of an eaithy and arenaceous appear- 

 ance that compose its numerous strata, separate them so 

 much from the other transition rocks mentioned above, that 

 the greater number of geologists have considered them as of 

 a more recent formation, or at least very different, and have 

 assigned them the name of Alpine limestone, or formation. 



If to these characters I add that fossil shells are found in 

 it, though very rarely ; that I have nevertheless found the 

 impression of an ammonite or nautilus, geologists who will 



N 2 



