Ch. XII.] 
TERTIARY STRATA AT NICE. 
167 
other bays of the Mediterranean, which are surrounded by 
bold rocky coasts. 
The general resemblance of the Albenga strata to the 
Subapennine beds is very striking, the lowest division consisting 
of blue marl, which is covered by sand and yellow clay, and 
the highest by a mass of stratified shingle, sometimes consoli- 
dated into a conglomerate. Dr. Sasso has collected about 200 
species of shells from these beds, and it appears, by his 
catalogue, that they agree, for the most part, with the northern 
Subapennine fossils, more than half of them belonging to recent 
species *. 
Nice. — At Nice the tertiary strata are upraised to a much 
greater height, but they may still be said to lie at the base of 
the Alps which tower above them. Here, also, they consist 
principally of blue marl and yellow sand, which appear to 
have been deposited in submarine valleys previously existing in 
the inclined secondary strata. In one district, a few miles to 
the west of Nice, the tertiary beds are almost exclusively com- 
posed of conglomerate, from the point of their junction with 
the secondary strata to the sea. 
The river Magnan flows in a deep valley which terminates 
at its upper extremity in a narrow ravine. Nearly vertical 
Monte Calvo. No. 29. 
Section from Monte Calvo to the sea by the valley of Magnan, near Nice. 
A, Dolomite and sandstone. (Green-sand formation ?) 
a, b, d, Beds of gravel and sand. 
c } Fine marl and sand of St. Madeleine. 
* Giornale Ligustico, Genoa, 1827. 
