NEWER PLIOCENE OF SICILY. 
205 
more ancient cone, situated 3-| miles to the east of the pres¬ 
ent one.* 
It appears that while Etna was increasing in bulk by a 
series of eruptions, its whole mass, comprising the founda¬ 
tions of subaqueous origin above alluded to, was undergoing 
a slow upheaval, by which those marine strata were raised 
to the height of 1200 feet above the sea, as seen at Catera, 
and perhaps to greater heights, for we can not trace their 
extension westward, owing to the dense and continuous cov¬ 
ering of modern lava under which they are buried. During 
the gradual rise of these ISTewer Pliocene formations (consist¬ 
ing of clays, sands, and basalts) other strata of Post-pliocene 
date, marine as well as fluviatile, accumulated round the base 
of the mountain, and these, in their turn, partook of the up¬ 
ward movement, so that several inland cliffs and terraces at 
low levels, due partly to the action of the sea and partly to 
the river Simeto, originated in succession. Fossil remains 
of the elephant, and other extinct quadrupeds, have been 
found in these Post-pliocene strata, associated with recent 
shells. 
There is probably no part of Europe where the Newer Pli¬ 
ocene formations enter so largely into the structure of the 
earth’s‘crust, or rise to such heights above the level of the 
sea, as Sicily. They cover nearly half the island, and near 
its centre, at Castrogiovanni, reach an elevation of 3000 feet. 
They consist principally of two divisipns, the upper calcare¬ 
ous and the lower argillaceous, both of which may be seen 
at Syracuse, Girgenti, and Castrogiovanni. According to 
Philippi, to whom we are indebted for the best account of 
the tertiary shells of this island, thirty-live species out of one 
hundred and twenty-four obtained from the beds in central 
Sicily are extinct. 
A geologist, accustomed to see nearly all the Newer Pli¬ 
ocene formations in the north ^of Europe occupying low 
grounds and very incoherent in texture, is naturally surprised 
to behold formations of the same age so solid and stony, of 
such thickness, and attaining so great an elevation above 
the level of the sea. The upper or calcareous member of 
this group in Sicily consists in some places of a yellowish- 
white stone, like the Calcaire Grossier of Paris ; in others, 
of a rock nearly as compact as marble. Its aggregate thick¬ 
ness amounts sometimes to 700 or 800 feet. It usually oc¬ 
curs in regular horizontal beds, and is occasionally intersect¬ 
ed by deep valleys, such as those of Sortino and Pentalica, 
* See a Memoir on the Lavas and Mode of Origin of Mount Etna, by the 
Author, Phil. Trans., 1858. 
