Ch. IX.] 
PROOFS OF SUCCESSIVE ELEVATION. 
Ill 
this as in many other limestones, which, when exposed to the 
action of frost, scale off in small fragments at right angles 
to the plane of stratification. It might have been expected 
that, in this case, a talus composed of a breccia of the lime- 
stone would be found on each ledge, so that the slope would 
become gradual, but perhaps the fragments instead of accumu- 
lating may decompose and be washed away by the heavy rains. 
The line of some of the valleys near Lentini has evidently 
been determined mainly by the direction of the elevatory force, 
as there is an anticlinal dip in the strata on either side of the 
valley. The same is, probably, the case in regard to the great 
valley of the Anapo, which terminates at Syracuse. 
Sea-cliffs — proofs of successive elevation. — No decisive evi- 
dence could be looked for in the form of the valleys to deter- 
ine the question, whether the subterranean movements which 
upheaved the newer Pliocene strata in Sicily were very numer- 
ous or few in number. But Ave find the signs of two periods 
of elevation in a long range of inland cliff on the east side of the 
Yal di Noto, both to the north of Syracuse, beyond Melilli, and 
to the south beyond the town of Noto. The great limestone 
formation before mentioned, terminates suddenly towards the 
sea in a lofty precipice, a, 6, which varies in height from five 
No. 23. 
hundred to seven hundred feet, and may remind the English 
geologist of some of the most perpendicular escarpments 
of our chalk and oolite. Between the base of the precipice 
a, b, and the sea, is a^n inferior platform, c, b, consisting of 
similar white limestone. All the strata dip towards the sea, 
