J£6S 
Dr Daubeny on the Geology of Sicily* * 
stances in which any other kind of rock is seen above them, by 
the modern lavas of Mount Etna. The character, therefore, of 
the shells they contain, seems the only method that remains to 
us for determining the date of the rocks, and here, fortunately, 
the information afforded, if not absolutely conclusive, leads, at 
least, to a probable conjecture. 
In the south of the island, indeed, between Cape Passero and 
Palazzolo, few fossils occur, and these not of a decisive charac- 
ter, unless the rock of Cape Passero itself be considered an ex- 
ception, where, together with the hippurite, a fossil common, as 
it would appear, both to the chalk and the first tertiary lime- 
stone *, nummulites and melanites are also frequent. 
It is, however, to the country intervening between Sortino and 
Lentini, that I would refer for the most satisfactory proofs of 
the real age of this formation, as we there see beds abounding 
in shells, which, if not confined to the most recent class of rocks, 
seem, nevertheless, in this instance, by their concurrence as well 
as frequency, to indicate the recent date of the beds which con- 
tain them. Among these, the cerithium, turritella, venus, and 
venericardia may be mentioned as frequent ; and near Lentini, 
dentalia, strombi, pectines, casts of trochi, and neritae, also oc- 
cur. 
I may add, that fossil fish have been found near Syracuse, as 
in the rocks of a similar epoch at Monte Bolca near Vicenza. 
With regard to the volcanic rocks with which these beds are 
associated, I may observe, that, whilst the cellular and semivi- 
treous aspect of many of them is such as to preclude any class of 
geologists from entertaining doubts with respect to the manner 
of their formation -j- ; the characters of other portions present 
strong analogies to rocks of the trap family, which, whatever 
* According to Dr Boue’s arrangement of Fossil Organic Remains, published 
in the Number of the Edinburgh Philosophical Journal for January and April 
1825, it appears that the Hippuritis rotula and H. elongatus of Schlottheim belong 
to the chalk ; the II. areolatus , II. turbinolatus var. a., and II. renovatus, to the 
first tertiary or salt-water limestone. 
*f* At Palagonia, west of Lentini, the volcanic rockjias a superficial covering of 
obsidian, while it has internally a lithoide basaltic aspect, reminding one of the vein 
in the island of Lamlash, close to Arran, the sides of which are of pitchstone, 
whilst the center is basalt. 
