174 Mr. De la Beche on the Geology of the 



2. The fissure partially filled by rounded, grey-blue pebbles brought from 



a distance. 



3. The remainder of the fissures filled by broken bones of animals, shells 



(marine and terrestrial), and fragments of rocks, mostly, but not solely, 

 those of the neighbourhood. 



4. The rise of the land, or the fall of the sea, to their present relative 



position. 



Osseous breccia is observed also near the town on the side of the harbour, 

 and other veins are found in the same hill, not osseous. The osseous breccia 

 contains several marine shells like those of the present Mediterranean, and 

 also land shells. — M. Risso has published a list of all these ; and there are 

 specimens in the cabinet of M. Verany. 



M. Verany pointed out to me a large cleft filled with osseous breccia, more 

 than 500 feet above the sea, on the top of Mont Moron. The cement of this 

 breccia is red, and the vesicles coated with small crystals of carbonate of 

 linie; — the fragments are angular, and consist of the same limestone and 

 dolomite as the main body of the hill. 



M. Risso has noticed a similar cleft containing bones on the south side of 

 the same hill. There is another patch of red osseous breccia at Villefranche, 

 whether in a fissure or not, can only be ascertained by blasting, which the 

 authorities would not permit, considering it too near the citadel. In the cement 

 of this breccia I observed small corals, with as fresh a fracture as recent corals, 

 and not derivative from the limestone rock. 



Another vein, not yet found to be osseous, occurs west of the Panal or light- 

 house at the end of Villefranche Bay ; it is very compact; — the cement reddish 

 above, greyish below; it traverses dolomite, and contains, among other shells, 

 an inhabitant of the present Mediterranean, viz. the Terebratula emarginata 



of M. Risso. 



M. Faujas St. Fond found osseous breccia at the Cimiez*. After mention- 

 ing that some Englishmen had been searching for medals where the restored 

 convent now stands, he proceeds : " Les excavations faites pour rechercher 

 des monumens antiques, ont mis a decouvert, a une des extremites meri- 

 dionale du pare, la structure de la montagne, et ici comme a Nice, ce sont 

 des masses enormes du meme calcaire compacte, dont les bancs ont eprouve 

 de violentes commotions, des ruptures et des ecarts qui en ont derange I'as- 

 siette ; le spath calcaire les a ressoudes ensuite, et des filons de trois a quatre 

 pieds d'epaisseur, qui les coupent transversalement en divers sens, sont rem- 

 plies de la breche osseuse a ciment rouge, et se prolongent depuis le haut 



* Annates du Museum, torn. x. p. 419. 



