1849.] SHARPE ON THE SECONDARY ROCKS OF PORTUGAL. 159 



Serra de Rabacal or the Serra de Anciao * : the Lisbon road which had 

 run parallel to the chain for some miles south of Kediriha crosses the 

 western prolongation of the limestone at that village : the beds dip 

 N. 65°, and consist of a compact white limestone with a conchoidal 

 fracture. 



North of the Serra de Rabacal the limestone resumes its former 

 course of N. by W. : the road to Coimbra, after keeping for five miles 

 on its west flank, crosses the chain to Condeixa : the beds here strike 

 N. and are nearly perpendicular ; the limestone is divided by some 

 thick intervening beds of ferruginous sandstone. The chain is here 

 flanked on both sides by the sands of the subcretaceous series lying 

 with slight inclination against the nearly perpendicular Jurassic lime- 

 stones. 



To the northward of Condeixa the limestone chain gradually sinks 

 down and loses its importance ; I followed it no farther and cannot 

 state its exact termination, but I ascertained on another trip that it 

 is not to be seen on the north bank of the Mondego. 



Throughout the long course of this limestone chain I was only 

 fortunate enough to collect fossils at Monte Junto at its extreme ter- 

 mination southward ; these indicate that the beds at that spot belong 

 to the upper portion of the oolitic series : I think it probable that the 

 rest of the chain belongs to the same part of the oolitic system, but 

 this requires confirmation from farther observation. 



I have only visited a small portion of the district which lies to the 

 east of the great limestone chain just described, and must return to it 

 before I can be certain of having seen all the secondary formations of 

 this part of Portugal. 



As has been already mentioned at p. 157, the southern end of the 

 chain is encircled by the subcretaceous beds which flank its eastern 

 side from Monte Junto to Rio Maior, beyond which I did not follow 

 that side of the chain. The same occurs at the northern extremity 

 of the chain, its eastern edge being overlaid at Condeixa by subcre- 

 taceous beds. 



The middle part of the Jurassic chain is overlaid near Thomar by 

 beds whose age I cannot fix, as I found no organic remains in them, 

 and cannot compare them with any of the beds seen on the west of 

 this chain. Thomar stands on a thick formation of a softish, friable, 

 white limestone, occasionally brecciated, and passing in its upper 

 beds into a white calcareous sandstone : the dip at Thomar is E, 3° : 

 I found no trace of organic remains in this rock. A limestone of 

 similar mineral character and usually nearly horizontal, reaches 

 from Thomar to Torres Novas and Femes. About three miles 

 west of Thomar the white limestone just described is seen to rest 

 on soft ferruginous sandstone and sands, covering a band about three 

 miles wide. This sandstone rests on the Jurassic limestone of Val 

 d'Ovos, which dips at the junction E.S.E. 10°, so that the three 



* There is great confusion in the names of hills throughout Portugal, as the in- 

 habitants of the opposite sides of a chain often give it different names, and those 

 marked in the maps are frequently incorrect. 



