WHICH  HAVE  CONSOLIDATED  ON  STEEP  SLOPES. 
775 
have  burst  out  through  tertiary  clays  covered  with  alluvium,  no  other  changes  have  since 
occurred  in  the  same  region  except  those  produced  by  fluviatile  denudation,  which,  by 
removing  a portion  of  the  volcanic  and  other  rocks,  has  enabled  us  to  understand  the 
relation  of  the  former  to  the  older  formations.  Here,  therefore,  we  have  an  oppor- 
tunity of  testing  the  value  of  a speculation  often  hazarded  by  certain  geologists,  who 
wish  to  adopt,  in  a modified  form,  the  theory  of  Elevation-Craters.  They  contend  that 
however  problematical  the  assumed  terminal  catastrophe  may  be,  still  the  incipient 
convulsion  must  at  any  rate  heave  up  the  ground  all  round  the  orifice  of  eruption,  and 
make  the  beds  dip  away  in  every  direction  from  a central  point,  after  which  the  new 
lavas  and  scorise  as  they  were  thrown  out  might  mantle  round  the  first-raised  nucleus. 
But  we  find  no  warrant  for  such  conjectures  in  the  hills  of  Paternb  and  La  Motta;  nor 
did  I see  any  in  the  more  numerous  sections  of  the  volcanic  and  accompanying  sedi- 
mentary rocks  which  I examined  in  1828  in  the  Val  di  Noto,  south  of  the  plains  of  the 
Simeto.  Yet  the  volcanos  of  that  part  of  Sicily  have  burst  out  through  marine  tertiary 
formations  horizontally  stratified,  and  admirably  fitted  for  upheaval  into  dome-shaped 
hills  with  crateriform  openings  at  the  top,  if  it  were  the  nature  of  volcanic  forces  so  to 
distend,  lift  up,  and  burst  open  the  rocks  which  they  inject.  Instead  of  this,  the  melted 
matter  seems  to  have  simply  made  its  way  upwards  through  fissures,  now  constituting 
dikes,  without  produemg  any  extraordinary  dislocation  of  the  rocks,  and  without  making 
them  dip  at  steep  angles  away  from  a central  axis.] 
cs[  Upraised  flumatile  and  marine  deposits  of  the  old  estuary  of  the  Simeto. 
The  proximity  of  the  land  to  the  old  estuary  deposit  of  the  Simeto  is  indicated  by 
the  tusks  and  teeth  of  elephants*  found  near  Paternb,  as  well  as  at  other  places  in  the 
“Terra  Forte”  south  of  Catania,  and  frequently  in  digging  the  foundations  of  that  city. 
Bones  also  of  the  horse,  and  of  several  species  of  bovine  animals,  and  the  teeth  and 
horns  of  stags  have  been  met  with  in  the  same  places.  I was  also  informed,  that  in  the 
old  allmium  of  Cefali  the  molar  of  a hippopotamus  had  been  found;  but  I had  no 
opportunity  of  verifying  these  facts,  or  of  getting  the  species  determined  by  competent 
osteologists. 
Signor  B.  Gkavina,  in  a memoir  recently  published  in  the  ‘ Bulletin  ’ of  the  Geological 
Society  of  France  (2nd  series,  tom.  xv.  p.  391,  1857-58),  has  recorded  the  discovery  of 
a member  of  this  same  series  of  estuarine  deposits  which  is  of  marine  origin.  He  took 
me  to  see  its  exact  position  in  1858,  in  the  neighbourhood  of  Misterbianco,  where  it  is 
covered  by  the  conglomerate.  It  consists  of  ferruginous  sands  and  clays,  which  in  the 
hill  of  Camuliu,  between  Misterbianco  and  Catania,  contain  a bank  of  oysters  of  a recent 
species  {Ostrea  foliacea),  together  with  Pecten  varius  and  Anomia  ephippium.  These 
marine  sands  rise  to  the  height  of  more  than  800  feet  above  the  sea,  while  the  neigh- 
* The  fossil  elephant  above  alluded  to  is  probably  Ele'pTias  antiquus,  Ealconee.  To  that  species,  Dr.  Eal- 
COXEE  informs  me  (March  21,  1859),  all  the  elephantine  remains  found  in  caves  near  Palermo,  or  between 
that  city  and  Trapani,  are  referable,  no  vestige  of  E.  'primigenius  having  been  seen  by  him  in  Sicily. 
MDCCCLVIII.  5 I 
