170 OLDER PLIOCENE PERIOD. [Ch. XII. 



but it may originally have been 3')0() feet deep, as it is now 

 close to the shore at Nice. Here, therefore, a formation resem- 

 bling that of the Magnan above described may be in progress. 



The time required for the accumulation of such a mass of 

 conglomerate as we have just considered must be immense: on 

 what ground such formations have been frequently referred to 

 diluvial waves and to periods of great disturbance, we could 

 never understand, for the causes now in diurnal action at the 

 foot of the Maritime Alps and other analogous situations seem 

 to us quite sufficient to explain their origin. 



Tertiary strata at the eastern extremity of the Pyrenees. 

 We shall conclude this chapter with one more example derived 

 from a region not far distant. On the borders of the Mediter- 

 ranean at the eastern extremity of the Pyrenees, in the South 

 of France, a considerable thickness of tertiary strata are seen 

 in the valleys of the rivers Tech, Tet, and Gly. They bear 

 much resemblance to those already described, consisting partly 

 of a great thickness of conglomerate, and partly of clay and 

 sand, with subordinate beds of lignite. They abut against the 

 primary formation of the Pyrenees, which here consists of 

 mica- schist. Between Ceret and Boulon these tertiary strata 

 are seen inclined at an angle of between 20 and 30. The 

 shells which I procured from several localities were recognized 

 by M. Deshayes as agreeing with Subapennine fossils. 



Spain Morca, It appeal's from the recent observations 

 of Colonel Silvertop, that marine strata of the older Pliocene 

 period occur in patches at Malaga, and in Granada, in Spain. 

 They have also been discovered by MM. Boblaye and Virlet 

 in the Morea, and the names of many of the shells brought 

 from thence are given in the Appendix No. I. 



