﻿1850.] CATULJLO ON THE RED AMMON ITIC LIMESTONE. 71 



some of which we also find in the upper neocomian strata ; the teeth 

 of Lamna longidensl, Agass., of Ptychodus latissimus, Agass., of P. 

 Mortonii, Agass., and P. mammillaris, Agass. ; and among the re- 

 mains of Saurians, the skull of a Crocodile, from the ammonitic lime- 

 stone of Tresche in the Sette Commri, already described by Stern- 

 berg*, and compared by Cuvier to the Gavialis longirostris, Goldf., 

 of the jurassic rocks of Honfleur in Normandy ; which afforded me 

 occasion some years ago to dwell on the similarity between the marl 

 of Havre in France and the strata of the ammonitic limestone of the 

 Upper Vicentine f. 



What is important to observe is, that the Terebratula antinomia, 

 Cat., so frequent in the upper epiolitic limestone and in the Biancone 

 which covers it, does not appear in the limestone of the inferior bed ; 

 a circumstance which deserves to be recorded, because it contributes 

 to establish the difference between these two limestones. Specimens, 

 however, of this Terebratula, procured from the neocomian strata 

 and from the underlying epiolitic schistose limestone, present varie- 

 ties which will be noticed presently. 



Upper Epiolitic Limestone of the Venetian Alps. 



The upper epiolitic limestone shows itself with all its usual cha- 

 racters in many parts of Lombardy and the Venetian territory. In 

 the district of Belluno it constitutes the upper part of the Alps which 

 lie to the left of the Piave, opposite to the village of Longarone 

 (Monte Salta) ; and the same formation rises on the right of the 

 same river between Pirago and Igne, forming the right side of the 

 road leading to Zoldiano. 



The true epiolitic limestone is wanting in the neighbourhood of 

 Belluno, for it must not be confounded with the red Scaglia with 

 fucoids, which leans against the south slope of Monte Serva ; but it 

 appears that in the neighbourhood of Igne it bends to the north-west 

 (Perera, Soffranco), and towards the south it is covered by the neo- 

 comian formation (to the right of the Piave), and by the eocene and 

 miocene sandstones (Valle dell' Ardo) ; it then rises near Vedana 

 approaching the Mis, and advancing into the district of Feltre (Cesio 

 maggiore, Vedana). There, more than anywhere else, the epiolitic 

 formation may be seen with all its geognostical and mineralogical 

 characters, inasmuch as we see that the red limestone is in its upper 

 part schistose, soft and marly, while the limestone of the lower strata 

 appears compact, very solid, being of a dark red, with yellowish 

 white spots ; and in the lowest parts of the Alps it becomes a species 

 of conglomerate, the nodules of which are connected together, and 

 present nearly the same forms as the spots that are observed on the 

 unaltered stone. The opinion that I have long since expressed, that 

 these nodules are fragments of Ammonites, remains unchanged, in- 

 asmuch as the marks on the pieces of stone that are quarried at 

 Cesio, to be worked into columns or tables, preserve the spiral forms, 



* Voyage en Tyrol, &c. Ratisbonne, 1806. 

 f Zool. Foss. delle Venete, p. 190, 1827, 



