492 



PROCEEDINGS 



OF 



THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



POSTPONED PAPER. 



Ftjbthek Notes oti the Geology of the Neighboitkhood of Malaga. 

 By M. D. M. D'Oetjeta. 



(Communicated by the late Sir E. I. Murchison, Bart., F.E.S., F.G.S.) 



[Eead February 7, 1872.] 



(Abridged.) 



Since my former paper on this subject (see Q. J. G. S. vol. xxvii. 

 p. 109), I have visited several parts of the mountain-chain near Ante- 

 quera, and made another expedition to the Torcal, in order to observe 

 more carefully the order of superposition of the rocks of the Sierra 

 and those of the plain of Antequera, and I have collected some facts 

 justifying my proposed classification. The rocks of the Torcal, as 

 well as the other parts of the chain, are composed of a very fine and 

 compact limestone, white in some places, but becoming red through- 

 out the centre of the ridge, owing to infiltrations of oxide of iron. 

 They form very beautiful marbles, called " Jaspon bianco " or " Jas- 

 pon rosso " (according to their colour), and extensively employed for 

 ornamental purposes in several parts of this province. At the foot 

 of the Torcal they pass into a coarser calcareous stone, called in 

 Antequera " Piedra Javaluna." These rocks extend for some distance 

 towards the plain, but soon become a sort of conglomerate, com- 

 posed of round calcareous pebbles, united bj a cement of the same 

 material. About a mile and a half from the foot of the Sierra, they 

 are seen to cover, in conformable stratification, beds of an almost 

 pure sandstone, of a soft and easily disintegrable character, con- 

 taining many fossils, the most abundant being O^'yphcea virr/ula, 

 which is characteristic of the Kimmeridge Clay both in Eng- 

 land and on the continent of Europe. The soil seems, in some 

 parts, to be sown with Oryphcece ; so that loads of them might be 

 collected in a very short time. This was the cause of an error into 

 which I fell in my former communication. The road was very" 

 rough and hiUy ; and we were riding by the side of a rivulet, when 

 the fossils were brought to us from a neighbouring field, where we 



