Dr. Traill on the Salt Mines of Car don a. 411 



its northern extremity, which declines as It stretches towards 

 Manresa. This chain consists of similar materials to Montserraf; 

 viz. of vast beds of farcilite, composed of rounded masses of quartz, 

 with angular pieces of siliceous slate, and fragments of clayslate 

 united by a basis containing calcareous earth. The fragments of 

 this farcilite become smaller as v;e go northward, and at last bear 

 a striking resemblance to coarse greywacke ; to which formation 

 I am inclined to assign the puddingstone of Montserrat, and the 

 chain of which it forms a part.* 



On descending the rugged mountains of puddingstone into the 

 valley of the Lobregat, before coming to Manresa, we observe 

 strata of a bluish grey rock with interposed layers of a softer material 

 of the same colour, which crumbles into sandy clay by exposure to 

 the weather. These strata have some resemblance to sandstone-flag ; 

 but an attentive consideration convinced me that they ought to be 

 considered as stratified greywacke approaching to greywacke slate. 

 Above these we again find the farcilite, which is the prevailing rock 

 about Manresa. All the rocks hitherto mentioned effervesce slightly 

 with acids ; a circumstance which connects them in some measure 

 with the extensive limestone country to the south-west of Mont- 

 serrat J and they all shew a tendency to split vertically into columnar 

 masses. Beyond Manresa the farcilite occurs till the traveller crosses 

 the ford of the Cardonero, when it is succeeded by a limestone of a 

 (dirty iron brown colour, and dull, almost earthy, fracture. Beyond 



* It may not be Impropei here to remark, that the common descriptions of Montserrat, 

 are in several respects erroneous. It is not an i7tsulaied mountain, as generally repre- 

 sented J but is the highest point of a considerable chain. Its insular appearance, as seen 

 from the high road between Igualada and Martorel, has deceived those who have never 

 examined its north-eastern side. The touchstone, mentioned by Bowles and others, as 

 entering into the composition of its puddingstone, appears by its fracture to be only a 

 dark coloured common siliceous slate. 



3 F 2 



