112 Dr Daubeny on the Geology of Sicily. 
quently of an ash colour, sometimes brecciated with irregular 
patches of red and grey, or diversified by undulating veins of a 
whitish and more crystalline variety of calcareous matter, which 
penetrate the substance of the bed. The junction between the 
limestone and the subjacent mica-slate, is well seen near the 
road at the foot of the hill on which the ruins of Taormina are 
situated. This hill, and probably most of those contiguous, 
consist of this limestone, which stretches far into the interior, 
constituting a sort of boundary line between the Volcanic and 
Neptunian districts, a barrier beyond which the lavas of Etna 
have never yet penetrated. 
To this same formation seems to belong the series of rocks 
which I before mentioned, as occurring on the northern coast, 
after we have passed Melazzo, on our way to Palermo. They 
are best seen at Cape Minjivio *, where the Greek colony of 
Tyndaris formerly stood. They there consist of beds of mica- 
slate, alternating with a bluish crystalline limestone, without 
shells, of a granular rock, consisting principally of quartz and 
mica, which I shall denominate Quartzy Rock, and a sandstone 
made up of minute fragments of the above two ingredients. 
The strata are here inclined at a considerable angle ; and, if my 
observations are correct, to the north-west ; but this does not ac- 
cord with the dip which I have noted down as belonging to the 
slate of Taormina, which appears to be to the south-west. How- 
ever this may be, the whole series of beds seen at Cape Minjivio 
rests finally on mica-slate, which itself appears to repose on the 
gneiss of Melazzo. After leaving the former place, however, 
the quartzy rock appears for some time to predominate, until we 
arrive at a village^called Giojusa, some miles west of the town of 
Patti, where it is seen at first curiously interlaced in thin strata, 
with a grey compact limestone, and afterwards giving place to 
that rock. This limestone contains several caverns, one of which 
was entered a few years ago, and found to contain bones of some 
large animals, which, unfortunately, were not preserved. I ex- 
plored another which had recently been discovered, but found 
no animal remains ; the floor was covered with stalagmites, and a 
* Minjivio is a corruption of Mons Jo vis, a temple in honour of Jupiter having 
formerly stood there. 
