of the Island of Zante. 405 



mencement of a section which carries us much further down in the series 

 than the lowermost beds examined at Lixouri. (PI. XXXIIL, Section 2.) The 

 gypsum also occurs in white and conspicuous patches on the hill at the S.E. 

 extremity of the island. The rest of this hill consists of sand and clay be- 

 long-ing to the upper part of the series; but the beds are much disturbed, and 

 not easily reducible to the regular arrangement seen in Sections 1 and 2. 



The uppermost beds in Section 2 consist of gypseous marls and gypsum, 

 sometimes fine-grained and saccharine, but sometimes only a coarse aggre- 

 gate of selenitic crystals like that at Lixouri. The stratification is occasion- 

 ally preserved, though in others it appears to have been obliterated by the 

 action of crystallization. Angular fragments of a black marlstone, imbedded 

 in the gypsum, seem to have been derived from strata of stone, broken up by 

 the force of the crystallizing process. 



The strata of yellow limestone above the gypsum, exhibited in Section I, and 

 at Lixouri, clearly belong to the Pliocene epoch, many of their fossils being- 

 identical with those of the Subapennine hills. The strata which underlie the 

 gypsum in Section 2, consist of a series of brown sandy clays and marls, but 

 whether they also belong to the Pliocene or to a prior epoch, it is not easy 

 to determine. They extend for about two miles along the coast, and dip about 

 25° to E.N.E., with a few local interruptions. Fossils are very rare in these beds, 

 and in general they are too much crushed to allow the species to be determined. 

 They were noticed only near the middle of the argillaceous series and near 

 its base. At the former spot are crushed fragments of echini and obscure bi- 

 valves ; and at the latter, is a bed of indurated bluish marl containing an abun- 

 dance of the shells of Hyalasa and Creseis, but they are larger than those of the 

 species now living in the Mediterranean {Hyaleca cornea and Creseis spi- 

 nifera), and are therefore probably distinct species. 



The argillaceous beds are succeeded by yellowish calcareous sandstone and 

 loosely aggregated limestone. A great subsidence appears to have taken place 

 between that point and the range of secondary limestone, about a mile distant. 

 This tract forms the marshy plain of Port Cheri, towards which the tertiary 

 strata dip on both sides. There is consequently no traceable sequence between 

 the argillaceous beds above described and the calcareous strata, which we are 

 now considering. The latter dip about 18° S.W., and extend along the east 

 side of the marsh, forming some hillocks at its upper end. They consist in ge- 

 neral of calcareous particles, interspersed occasionally with pebbles of secondary 

 limestone; but some of the beds approach the texture of Portland stone. 

 Minute Foraminifera are abundant in it, and the only other fossils noticed 

 were two species of small Pectens. 



3 G 2 



