TRAVELS IN BRAZIL. 63 



and breadth, to belong to the common oyster ; 

 others, from their ribbed edge and convexity, per- 

 haps, to a cockle {Cardium), that is to say, to 

 marine conchylia. The water and air exercise great 

 influence on this soft, and probably still forming 

 mass, as deep cavities are found in it near the sea. 

 The whole of this breccia formation may rise, per- 

 haps, only a few hundred feet next the limestone 

 mountain, and measure in its greatest thickness 

 about fifty fathoms. The appearance of the pe- 

 trified bones in it is very limited, as far as the 

 country is at present known. They are foimd 

 chiefly in the rock near Rosia Bay, and southward 

 of the governor's country-house, on the sea-shore 

 where the waves break violently against the cliffs, 

 which in this place are from 30 to 40 feet high. 



We have judged it proper to be more circum- 

 stantial in our description of the osseous breccia of 

 Gibraltar, because the similar formation in many 

 countries on the Adriatic and the Mediterranean, 

 gives it very great interest in a geognostical view. 

 For besides Gibraltar, some parts of Corsica, Cette, 

 Antibes, Nice* in the south of France, Fustapi- 

 dama in Corfu, Nona near Zara, and Ragosnitza 

 in Dalmatia, the islands in the Golfb di Quarnero, 

 Osero, Cherso, Sansego, &c., offer a perfectly simi- 

 lar breccia, which was formed from the fragments 

 of the limestone mountains which run in a chain 

 along the coasts of the Mediterranean. The late 



* Faujas de St. Fond. Annal, du Mus. torn 10. 



