﻿KAISER ON THE GEOLOGY OF THE VICINITY OF TRIESTE. 39 



again further on at the promontory with a reversed dip. Several 

 abrupt rocks are seen here exposed to the force of the waves, which 

 are merely the wrecks of similar arches formed of alternations of 

 limestone and marly beds : it is true that a complete section of one 

 of these bands is not visible as at St. Andrea ; but it is to be inferred 

 that they have existed from the convergence of the beds and their 

 prevailing strike. Here also the beds of the macigno are not frac- 

 tured, any more than the sandstone, which is sometimes pretty thick. 

 Three of these anticlinal axes converge, so as to resemble three inverted 

 cones whose apices all point to the same centre. These arched beds 

 in their upper part are of a more sandy nature, resembling the usual 

 macigno, but they soon become purely calcareous and swarm with 

 Nummulites, some of the species being as large as those at Rojano 

 on the declivity of the Karst. I have found them 1| inch in dia- 

 meter. They are also very abundant in a bed of clay which imme- 

 diately underlies the limestone. 



It is very striking to observe the passage of the sandy beds into 

 limestones, since at the time of the upheaval these latter could not 

 have acquired their present consistency ; otherwise they must either 

 have resisted the pressure or been fractured. Together with the 

 Nummulites other marine remains are found here, for instance Echi- 

 nites (Spatangas ?), Corals, and a Pecten. 



At the other extremity of the peninsula, near the hill called S. 

 Pantaleone, a very similar limestone appears, but with much simpler 

 relations : the fossils are the same, but the cracks in the limestone 

 are filled with white stalactitic incrustations which cannot have origi- 

 nated in the immediately overlying beds of clay and sandstone. 



The geological relations of the rocks on the shore of the Gulf of 

 Firano to Capo d'Istria are still simpler than those of the opposite 

 shore of Trieste, but not less deserving of remark. For these two 

 miles along the shore the macigno forms horizontal strata of uniform 

 thickness, which compared to the Trieste beds exhibit very slight 

 disturbances. Near Pirano the coast forms almost a right angle, 

 which enables one to see that the beds dip about 11° to the south- 

 ward. Here there is a very remarkable yellow limestone, about three 

 feet thick and very hard, interstratified between thin beds of marl 

 and sandstone, and most exactly conformable to their bedding, at 

 the same time without producing the slightest change in either the 

 under- or over-lying stratum, which is not the case in any one of the 

 situations hitherto described. The upper part of this bed, which is 

 the more arenaceous, contains the same Fuci as the macigno : in the 

 middle and lower part they are wanting : but for the thickness of an 

 inch the lower part consists entirely of Nummulites, which in size, 

 shape, and even in colour, closely resemble lentils. This rock has 

 a singular appearance, in consequence of certain fissures which 

 run in a transverse direction to the bedding, and for the upper and 

 lower third are even perpendicular to it. The course of this rock, 

 after it has sunk below the road, can still be traced out to sea by a 

 line of projecting reefs. 



The strike of this bed can be readily followed along the coast to 



