MINERAL GEOGRAPHY. 
121 
Rhine. Winding amongst these, embracing them, and interlock¬ 
ed with them, and with each otlier, in various ways, are the form¬ 
ations of more recent date. The tertiary deposits of the Paris 
basin, and of the Garonne, have been mentioned. Another is 
remarkable for occupying a depression in the central primitive 
plateau, upon which it reposes directly, without the intervention 
of any other rock. Mines of iron, lead, copper, and antimony, 
are wrought in several different places, in or near the primitive 
formations, but with the exception of antimony, the metal obtain¬ 
ed is not sufficient to supply the wants of the kingdom. 
Spain and Portugal. Less is known of their geology, than 
of that of any other part of Europe, Turkey excepted. Ranges 
of primitive mountains extend through the central parts of the 
Peninsula; the province of Galicia is also primitive. But the 
Cantabrian chain, on the north, and the Sierras Morena and Ni- 
vada in the south, are formed of more recent rocks. There is an 
abundance of excellent iron ore in the province of Biscay, and 
coal in Asturias ; but the part of Spain most favoured by nature, 
is that lying within the limits of the ancient kingdom of Grana¬ 
da. Here are the quicksilver mines of Almaden, in clay slate, 
yielding a greater amount of that metal than all the other mines 
of the world, and the mines of Adra, which fix the price of lead 
throughout the continent of Europe. 
Switzerland. Its granite, and secondary limestone mountains 
(Jura) have been mentioned. A tertiary formation called by the 
Swiss geologists (the molasse) extends from the lake of Geneva, 
in a north-easterly direction, to that of Constance. There are salt 
mines at Bex. 
Italy. Except near its northern extremity, and in the neigh¬ 
borhood of the Alps, there are no primitive rocks in Italy, nor 
has it any valuable mines. The Appenines are a ridge of second¬ 
ary limestone, with tertiary deposits on each side; Corsica,Sardinia 
and Elba, are mostly primitive, and the latter has been celebrated 
from a remote antiquity for its mines of iron. The greater part of 
Sicily is of recent origin. It is from the Solfatara near Naples, 
and the tertiary blue clay of this island, that Europe is supplied 
w'ith sulphur. 
Germany—Central Europe The shores of the North Sea, 
and the Baltic, to a considerable distance inland, are low and level 
tertiary deposits. Throughout the greater part of Belgium, the 
whole of Holland, Hanover, Denmark, the northern part of Prus¬ 
sia, including more than half of the kingdom, Poland as it was 
before its dismemberment, and much of European Russia, we find 
tertiary clays and sands, of verj' different composition, and un¬ 
equal fertility, in different places, but bearing everywhere a con¬ 
siderable resemblance to the low country of North Carolina. 
There is prol ably a greater extent of sterile soil in Prussia, than 
in any other part of this area. 
South of the tertiarv, the older rocks come in. forming one of 
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