222 PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. [DcC. 13, 



over the summits of the Setti Commmii withm the chain of the Alps 

 (see fig. 22), are brought down by rapid flexures to occupy, as before 

 said, vertical positions on the edge of the lower country*. To the red 

 and white scaglia {d) so placed on both banks of the Brenta succeed 

 sandy marls and stone-bands which form the base of the nummulitic 

 group formerly described. Vertical ledges (/") of nummulitic lime- 

 stone follow. This inclination is continued, as far as can be observed, 

 through the whole space occupied by the city of Bassano ; for after 

 passing over the edges of a great thickness of marls, impure lime- 

 stone, sands, &c. (</, ^), few of which are well exposed, the section ter- 

 minates towards the flat country on the south in the conical hillock 

 of JMonte Grado composed of sandstone, calcareous grit and pebbly 

 conglomerate (^), the beds of which strike parallel to the rest of the 

 ascending series, and dip 75° to 80° to the south. I have only to add, 

 that the Ostrea Virginica and the shells found in the outermost 

 conglomerate are of pliocene age, whilst the nummulitic and lower 

 masses near the scaglia are of the same date as the older tertiary 

 accumulations of Ronca, Castel Gomberto, &c. 



The section from the scaglia of Possagno, on the edge of the Alps, to 

 Asolo, at the exterior of the tertiary series of this region (fig. 23), is 

 much more developed in its middle and upper portions, though the 

 junction of the nummulitic strata with the scaglia, so well seen at Bas- 

 sano, is not exhibited, the strata having been denuded in the Val d'Ur- 

 gana. I believe that this valley was formerly occupied by the same 

 slightly coherent strata of shale, marl and green sandstone (e), which 

 in the Bavarian and Swiss Alps mark this horizon. The lowest tertiary 

 beds visible to the north of Possagno, and quite conformable in strike 

 and inclination to the underlying scaglia, are marls of darkish colour, 

 occasionally ferruginous and sandy, with fungise and other polypes, 

 and many of the fossils so well known at Monte Ronca and in the 

 Berici Hills(y'). Then follow calcareous grits and nummulitic lime- 

 stones (/) with Fusus longcevus, which passing up into hard white 

 courses are surmounted by a yellowish subconcretionary impure sandy 

 limestone with blue fossiliferous marls in which pectens first appear. 

 Next come yellow sandy limestone and calcareous grit with green grains, 

 containing pectens and echini. This mass {g) is of considerable thick- 

 ness, and is very similar to some of the calcareous green sandstones 

 of Switzerland, there associated with the nummulite limestones. Over- 

 lying this '* glauconie grossiere" is a small concretionary mottled 

 dark grey and cream-coloured limestone, loaded with foraminifera, 

 in which nummulites sometimes occur. This rock is well exposed 

 at Castel-Cucco, where it has been largely quarried, and the co- 

 lumns of Canova's church of Possagno are built of it. The strata 

 of marl, shale and sand which succeed to the south of Castel-Cucco {K) 

 are badly exposed in low undulating grounds with devious dips ; but 

 on reaching the outer tertiary ridge of the Asolan Hills, a good, well- 

 defined order is exposed, first, in an escarpment in which blue marls, 



* See Bull. Geol. Soc. Fr. torn. iv. p. 56, 7th Nov. 1842, where M. de Ziguo 

 confirms my former view of the general relations of the secondary to the tertiary 

 rocks. 



