Ill 
Dr Daubeny on the Geology of Sicily. 
Noara is the most elevated peak. I crossed this range of moun- 
tains, in my first journey at Taormina, on the road leading from 
Catania to Messina, and in my second, after I had skirted the 
western base of Etna, in striking across from Randazzo to the 
northern coast. 
This wild and little explored district, which Brydone describes 
as the haunt of banditti, may be traversed at present in the most 
perfect security, and would deserve to be visited by every tra- 
veller, were it only for the striking views it presents of Mount 
Etna on the one hand, and the Lipari Islands on the other. 
The prevailing rocks appear to be either some of the interme- 
diate gradations between mica-slate and clay-slate, a loose rubbly 
variety of the latter kind of rock, or a conglomerate made up of 
fragments of quartz, mica, and clay-slate, which may be fairly 
considered a grey-wacke. Ferrara, in his Campi Flegrei, notices 
the occurrence of a porphyry 44 composed of felspar, schorl, 
44 mica, red or greenish grains of quartz, and greenish-red chry- 
44 solite,” ( Qu . olivine ?). I have myself found, in the gravel near 
Taormina, rolled masses of a hard porphyry, consisting chiefly 
of felspar, with some mica. 
The clay-slate also contains occasional beds of anthracite, as 
near Messina. The prevailing character of the slaty rocks is 
earthy and friable ; but to this there are many exceptions, espe- 
cially near Taormina, where we meet with a compact mica-slate 
in which quartz sometimes ’abounds. At Rocca-Lumera, and 
Ali, some miles to the north of the latter place, we meet with a 
quartzose variety of slate, containing various metallic sulphurets, 
such as galena, sulphuret of antimony, together with iron and 
copper pyrites. The decomposition of these have probably given 
rise to the formation of alum, for which Rocca-Lumera was once 
celebrated ; but the works at present seem quite neglected. The 
same remark applies to the lead mines formerly worked in that 
neighbourhood. 
The slate near its southern termination alternates with beds of 
red sandstone, and is covered by a compact limestone, many va- 
rieties of which are much prized as marbles. It is more fre- 
* Few of the rocks in this district, excepting those near Taormina, exhibit the 
characters of primitive mica-slate. 
