ENVIRONS OF NICE. 433 



This stone is peculiarly hard, brittle, and very sonorous : 

 the colour is a light brown, tinged with red. Here, also, the 

 action of the weather leaves the petrified portions projecting, 

 and produces a very rough and arid surface. I understand 

 this coral limestone has been described by M. St Fond as a 

 particular formation. No doubt the beds which contain these 

 organic bodies, differ from such as contain none. They, how- 

 ever, form portions of the same series of stratification, and, so 

 far as I understand the term, are parts of the same Forma- 

 tion. 



Having described the characters and composition of the first 

 limestone, I shall proceed to notice the caves which so fre- 

 quently occur in it. These are found, not only on the shore 

 of the sea, but high on the summits and sides of the hills, 

 where no running water, according to the present order of 

 things, could ever have existed. I have also seen portions of 

 cavities displayed in a much more instructive situation, in the 

 line of the new Genoa road, pompously denominated Le Clie- 

 min de Rome. Here they have been cut through in the pro- 

 gress of that useful, but now abandoned undertaking, and the 

 sections laid completely open to view. To what these cavities 

 are to be attributed, it is very difficult to determine ; but from 

 the appearance of dislocation which is observed accompanying 

 those last mentioned, it is probable they are indebted for their 

 formation to some great concussion ; but whether proceeding 

 from above or below, we may perhaps be better able to hazard 

 a suggestion in the sequel. 



Connected, as I conceive, with these caverns, is the broken 

 and fragmented state in which we very frequently find the first 

 limestone, forming the Bresche en place of Saussure, one of 

 the most interesting circumstances which occur in the history 

 of this substance. Upon the tops of the mountains, in loose 



Vol. VIII. P. II. 3 I fragments, 



