CATULLO VENETIAN TERTIARIES. 27 



remarks that, of the corals enveloped in the breccia of Monteviale, 

 Sangonini, Montechio-Maggiore, and a few other localities, some few 

 have been referred by Michelin to the Chalk ; but that these excep- 

 tional specimens might have been transported by the basaltic 

 eruptions. 



The nummulitic zone is at times very complex, being in some 

 localities composed of its most characteristic rocks, whilst in others 

 several of these are wanting. Thus at Brendola, the nummulite- 

 rock overlies a peperite, which in other localities alternates with it, 

 both rocks containing similar eocene fossils ; elsewhere, however, as 

 at Sangronini and Ronca, the peperite affords numerous specimens 

 oi Flabellum appendiculatum, Orbitoides Prattii*, and other species 

 peculiar to it and not found in the overlying limestone. The plastic 

 clay is not always found underlying the nummulitic rocks. 



The author next enters into some details relating to the Middle 

 Tertiary or Miocene beds, as far as he has examined them in the 

 Venetian territory ; and states that the age of the hill of molasse to 

 the north of Belluno (Valle dell' Ardo, Libano, Tisoi, Orzes, &c.), 

 is determined by its containing miocene fossils, and by the underlying 

 glauconite. The fossiliferous molasse, so extensive in Switzerland 

 and Piedmont, attains a considerable development in the valleys to 

 the north of Belluno, from whence the author obtained most of his 

 miocene fossils. Leaving these valleys to the right, and advancing 

 towards the northwest, the author found at the Ponte del Gresal 

 that the molasse changes to a marl-rock, or a molasse of very fine 

 grain. He observes, that, if he has formerly given the name of 

 Pliocene to the middle tertiaries of some localities, they must be now^ 

 referred to the Miocene, because none of those deposits present 

 characters such as to entitle us to consider them as equivalents of 

 the upper subapennine zone, which, from the recent observations of 

 Prof. Doderlein, of Modena, is known to overlie miocene deposits 

 rich in marine remains. Signor CatuUo limits himself at present to 

 observing that the fossils from the marl of Asolane are for the most 

 part miocene and not pliocene, as supposed by Sir R. Murchison in 

 the Philosophical Magazine for 1829, as well as in his memoir on the 

 Structure of the Alps, published in 1849. 



The author concludes his discourse on the tertiary deposits of the 

 Venetian territory, by observing that the Eocene zone, from its 

 extent, the diversity and peculiarity of its rocks, the thickness of 

 the beds, and the considerable altitude it attains above the sea-level, 

 differs materially from the Miocene zone, which is composed some- 

 times of molasse, sometimes of marl and marly limestone, inter- 

 stratified with thin bands of sand or sandy rock, and is of small 

 extent and attains no considerable elevation, unless deposited on a 

 pre-existing eminence, as happens with the beds covering the glau- 

 conite of the Bellunese and vicinity of Ceneda. 



The fossils described in this memoir were chiefly derived from the 



* This Foraminifer is termed " Orbitulites " by CatuUo, and included in his 

 " Bryozoari": his Orbitulites nummuliformis is also an Orbitoides, and so also 

 probably is his Lunulites subradiata. Signor Catullo's figure of Lunulites andro- 

 saces (Michelotti) closely resembles Nummulites {Assilina) granulosus, d'Arch. ; 

 and his L, depressa has a similar character, judging from the figures. — Ed. 



