Or 
On 
ON TERTIARY FORMATIONS OF THE ALPS, NORTH ITALY. 85! 
54, Opservations on certain Turtrary Formations at the south base 
of the Atps, in Norra Iraty. By Lt.-Colonel H. H. Gopwin- 
AustEN, F.R.S., F.G.8., &. (Read June 25, 1884.) 
Havine last spring paid a visit to the south side of the Alps, my 
principal object being to see and examine the magnificent moraines 
of Ivrea, and the Val d’ Aosta, which supplied the materials of which 
they are composed, I was led into the examination of certain Ter- 
tiary formations which this great mass of moraine material generally 
conseals. These Tertiary beds, exposed at a few points near Ivrea, 
_have long since been noticed by the Italian geologists who have 
studied and written about this part of the country. 
My interest thus aroused, I afterwards proceeded to visit similar 
patches at Boca and Maggiora, east of the Sesia river; but it was 
not until I got to the Lago d‘Orta, and was walking over the 
moraines at its southern end, that I came on the most interesting 
section containing the best-preserved fossils. These latter have been 
examined and named by Dr. Gwyn Jeffreys, and the appended list 
greatly increases the interest and value of this communication. I 
shall begin therefore by giving a detailed account of this section, 
referred to casually in my Address to the Geographical Section of 
the British Association at Southport in 1883, and I shall afterwards 
refer to other localities in their turn. 
SECTION AT BuccrIoNnE. 
Those who know the Lago d’Orta will remember the old tower 
that stands so conspicuously on a steep point at the southern end 
of that lovely little lake, which, though very small when compared 
with its neighbour the Lago Maggiore, possesses many striking 
points of difference and interesting physical features. The level of 
its surface is far higher—by 580 feet. Like Maggiore, it lies in a 
north-and-south valley, but its drainage is diametrically opposite, 
viz. from south to north; this was not, I think, the original direc- 
tion in preglacial times. During those conditions the moraine 
matter was swept south against the present drainage-lines, convert- 
ing Monte Motterone and its spurs into a gigantic isolated mass, 
like an island in a sea of ice, precisely similar to those isolated 
masses of rock that are often seen in existing glaciers on a smaller 
scale. The principal point of interest relating to the section is its 
position so well within the mountain-zone; other points will be 
shown as the section is described. 
Proceeding from Orta southward, along the main road on the east 
margin of the lake (see Map, fig. 1), we come at last to a little bay 
under and to the north of the commanding point on which the old 
tower of Buccione stands; and a little ravine here runs up the east 
side of the porphyry spur (fig. 2). Works connected with the 
new railway extension from Borgomanero were in progress, so that 
good fresh sections were exposed at the head of this ravine. 
