ENVIRONS OF NICE. 439 



which, in a country so entirely composed of limestone, is a 

 very common production. 



Some deposites of gypsum likewise present themselves : it is 

 of the amorphous foliated kind, and, like that of Compostello, a 

 good deal stained with hematitic iron, but containing no crystals 

 of quartz. The most considerable bed is one in the immediate 

 neighbourhood of Nice : it rests on the southern extremity of the 

 hill of Cimiez, and to the north, it abuts on the first limestone. 

 Over it there is little else but vegetable mould. I however 

 noticed some traces of the mulatto stone, which would induce 

 one to consider it as a member of the second limestone. I 

 cannot, however, determine the point, as I nowhere saw it laid 

 open sufficiently. 



Such are the materials, not alluvial, of which this interesting 

 country is composed. A good deal of the limestone which I 

 remarked in the south of France, between Aix and the Var, 

 appeared to me, in passing rapidly over it, to be of the same 

 kind as that which I have here denominated the first, and 

 which I was induced to consider as belonging to the Transition 

 series. On this point, however, I speak with diffidence, as I 

 have had but very little opportunity of remarking its relations 

 in combination with any apparently older or contemporaneous 

 rock. In quitting the country by way of the Col de Tende, 

 very shortly after leaving Nice, I did not perceive, excepting 

 in two mountains, and there only from a distance, any traces 

 of my first limestone : the whole country was taken possession 

 of by the second, which imperceptibly changed its internal 

 characters so much, that at Tende, I was for a time induced 

 to consider it as of the older kind : it always, however, present- 

 ed a striking difference in its position, being invariably highly 

 inclined, and in many places contorted in a very remarkable 

 degree ; — nothing short, in that respect, to the most eccentric 

 convolutions of the transition rocks of St Abb's Head. 



In 



