ENVIRONS OF NICE. 447 



hammer to break it ; elsewhere it may be dug into with a 

 trowel. If carefully looked for, I believe it would be found to 

 extend over a considerable portion of the peninsula, as, in 

 walking along the edges of it, 1 have remarked traces of the 

 same kind of sand, which I have no doubt are continuous. 



I look upon this as the last operation of the sea previous to 

 its being reduced to its present level. Besides the shells and 

 fragments of coral this bed contains, I found parts of the limbs 

 of crustaceous animals. 



The last fact 1 have to notice, is not the least interesting, 

 it is one which has puzzled the ingenuity of all who have 

 attempted to account for it, and which still requires more 

 observation in order to be satisfactorily resolved. This coun- 

 try, as well as many others washed by the Mediterranean, con- 

 tains different deposites of the bones of animals : these are 

 usually imbedded in a red indurated clay, forming a mass 

 which is distinguished by the name of the brSsche osseuse. 



This conglomerate is already so well known, that it is only 

 necessary for me to notice the peculiarities which occurred to 

 myself. In this neighbourhood there are three different depo- 

 sites of it, one at Cimiez, another at Ville Franche, and the third 

 on the Castle Rock of Nice. The first I have never seen. I was 

 informed that it had recently been covered over with rubbish ; 

 of the three it is considerably the most distant from the sea. 

 That near Ville Franche is of very small extent ; the paste is 

 of a lively brick-red colour, and possessed of a great degree of 

 induration. The fragments of bones and teeth imbedded in it 

 are extremely white, and along with them are some rounded 

 pebbles of limestone, and occasionally marine shells. In one 

 part of the deposite, where there are no bones, or, if any, in 

 very minute fragments, the conglomerate appears to be a 

 congeries of sea shells, mixed with the spines of the Echinus. 



At 



