170 
OLDER PLIOCENE PERIOD. 
[Ch.XII. 
but it may originally have been 3000 feet deep, as it is now- 
close to the shore at Nice. Here, therefore, a formation resem- 
bling that of the Magnan above described may be in progress. 
The time required for the accumulation of such a mass of 
conglomerate as we have just considered must be immense: on 
what ground such formations have been frequently referred to 
diluvial waves and to periods of great disturbance, we could 
never understand, for the causes now in diurnal action at the 
foot of the Maritime Alps and other analogous situations seem 
to us quite sufficient to explain their origin. 
Tertiary strata at the eastern extremity of the Pyrenees, — . 
We shall conclude this chapter with one more example derived 
from a region not far distant, On the borders of the Mediter- 
ranean at the eastern extremity of the Pyrenees, in the South 
of France, a considerable thickness of tertiary strata are seen 
in the valleys of the rivers Tech, Tet, and Gly. They bear 
much resemblance to those already described,, consisting partly 
of a great thickness of conglomerate, and partly of clay and 
sand, with subordinate beds of lignite. They abut against the 
primary formation of the Pyrenees, which here consists of 
mica-schist. Between Ceret and Boulon these tertiary strata 
are seen inclined at an angle of between 20° and 30°. The 
shells which I procured from several localities were recognized 
by M. Deshayes as agreeing with Subapennine fossils. 
Spain — Morea. — It appears from the recent observations 
of Colonel Silvertop., that marine strata of the older Pliocene 
period occur in patches at Malaga, and in Granada, in Spain. 
They have also been discovered by MM. Boblaye and Virlet 
in the Morea^ and the names of many of the shells brought 
from thence are given in the Appendix No. I. 
