Ch. VI.] 
VOLCANIC TUFFS AND PEPERINOS. 
71 
been contorted and shivered into an immense number of frag- 
ments. 
We have stated that the beds of limestone, clay, and sand, 
in the Val di Noto, are often partially intermixed with volcanic 
ejections, such as may have been showered down into the sea 
during eruptions, or may have been swept by rivers from the 
land. When the volcanic matter predominates, these com- 
pound rocks constitute the peperinos of the Italian minera- 
logists, some of which are highly calcareous, full of shells, and 
extremely hard, being capable of a high polish like marble. 
In some parts of the Val di Noto they are variously mottled 
with spots of red and yellow, and contain small angular frag- 
ments, similar to the lapilli thrown from volcanos. 
It is recorded that, during the late eruption off the southern 
coast of Sicily, opposite Sciacca, the sea was in a state of violent 
ebullition, and filled, for several weeks continuously, with red 
or chocolate-coloured mud, consisting of finely-comminuted 
scoriae. During this period, it is clear that the waves and cur- 
rents that have since had power to sweep away the island, and 
disperse its materials far and wide over the bed of the sea, must 
with still greater ease have carried to vast distances the fine red 
mud, which was seen boiling up from the bottom, so that it may 
have entered largely into the composition of modern peperinos. 
Professor Hoffmann relates that, during the eruption (June, 
1831), the surface of the sea was strewed over, at the distance 
of thirty miles from the new volcano, with so dense a covering 
of scoriae, that the fishermen were obliged to part it with their 
oars, in order to propel their boats through the water. It is, 
therefore, quite consistent with analogy, that we should find 
the ancient tuffs and peperinos so much more generally dis- 
tributed than the submarine lavas. 
In the road which leads from Palagonia to Lago Naftia, and 
at the distance of about a mile and a half from the former 
place, there is a small pass where the hills, on both sides, consist 
of a calcareous grit, intermixed with some grains of volcanic 
sand. 
