1850.] ZIGNO ON THE VENETIAN ALPS. 431 



These beds also contain Trochus cumulans, Brongn., two species of 

 Bulla, one of them closely allied to B. lignaria, Linn., Terebellum 

 obvolutum, Brongn., small Cyprcece, casts of Ceritkium, Natica, 

 Conus, Mactra, &c., and the beautiful Nautilus which characterizes 

 the nummulitic beds of the Vicentin. Mixed with the Nummulites 

 I have found joints of the Apiocrinites ellipticus, Miller. From this 

 it would appear that this cretaceous fossil lived down to the tertiary- 

 period, unless indeed this bed be composed of regenerated materials 

 of the upper chalk during the basaltic eruptions which took place at 

 the close of the cretaceous period, a question which the locality does 

 not admit of our solving. I am however of opinion that the progress 

 of palaeontology will enable us to establish beds of passage in those 

 formations which lie conformably on each other. Observations di- 

 rected to this object will perhaps prove that the 'terrain Etrurien' of 

 my late friend M. Pilla is composed (as I formerly advanced) of the 

 lower tertiary and upper cretaceous. 



East of the Brenta, trap and breccias do not occur intermingled 

 with the lower tertiaries. These consist of ash-coloured marls full of 

 eocene fossils, alternating with limestones containing Nummulites, 

 Miliolites, and fossils of the calcaire grossier of Paris. These beds, 

 which furnish a good building-stone, are covered by clays, sands, and 

 molasse containing species of Pecten and Scutella of miocene age, 

 which again are covered by lignite and pebbly beds in which I have 

 found Ostrea Virginiana, Gmel., and O. longirostris, Lamk. The 

 low hills in the neighbourhood of Schio are also of molasse, contain- 

 ing Spatangus Hoffmanni, Goldf., and Pecten opercularis, Lamk. 

 Here the eocene is hidden, and does not appear again till we come 

 to S. Georges de Polio, where an inversion of the beds has taken 

 place, so that the eocene nummulitic beds are seen overlaid by the 

 upper cretaceous, and these by still older cretaceous strata, the whole 

 intermingled with basaltic tuff. This section had caused naturalists 

 to believe that there are nummulites below the chalk, an error which 

 M. Pasini was the first to rectify. 



In all the Trevisan hills the miocene beds pass gradually into con- 

 glomerates and sands, cemented by calcareous matter, of a more recent 

 age ; these form the southern slope of all the hills to Friuli. It was 

 probably this formation which furnished the tooth of Mastodon an- 

 gustidens, quoted by Cuvier, which was found near Soligo. I have 

 never succeeded in finding any fossils in it, though I have searched 

 it diligently, and particularly the caverns in the hill called Bocco del 

 Montello. There is, however, a small cavern hollowed out of the 

 nummulitic beds and filled with clay at the base of the hill of S. Lo- 

 renzo, between Montebello and Verona, which contains an abundance 

 of bones. Dr. Scortegagna, who procured some of them, has recog- 

 nized the teeth and bones of Hippopotamus and Rhinoceros. Pro- 

 fessor Catullo subsequently published an account of the bones found 

 in the caverns of the Veronais and of the Venetian provinces. He refers 

 them to Elephas primigenius, Blumenb., Equus adamiticus, Schlot., 

 TJrsus spelceus, Rosenm., Cervus tnegaceros. Hart, Canis vulpes, Linn., 

 Sus priscus, Goldf. Stags' horns have been found in the clays of our 



