iIl I! '!:
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therefore as elevated as the summit of Sca-
fell in Cumberland, the highest mountain in
England.
The secondary rocks in Chamouny are,
1st. those of sandstone in the Col de
Balme, associated with the Pudding-stone,
and schist that would be denominated grey-
wacke slate. I am inclined, however, to refer
the sandstone to the coal formation. I
have specimens of it, containing fine impressions
of fern, exactly similar to those in our
coal strata ; the stone is a micaceous sandstone,
abounding in mica so muchas nearly to
resemble mica-slate. I have seen such sandstone
occasionally in our English coal fields,
nor should we, I think, attribute an anterior
formation to the puddingstone, with
which it is associated. I particularly wish
the geological reader to bear in mind, that
throughout Savoy we find calcareous strata,
bearing all the mineral characters of transition
limestone, and even approaching'' to
statuary marble, which strata, if any just
inference can be drawn from the organic
remains they contain, must be classed with
our uppermost calcareous formations ; and I
repeat what I have elsewhere said, that if
the upper strata have undergone this
change of character, we may, with much
probability, conclude that a similar change
has also taken place in the strata immediately
below them. The anthracite of the
Alps, with dark shale and micaceous beds
containing vegetable impressions, I hold to
belong to a formation similar to that of our
great coal formations, although it is here
reduced to a comparatively small thickness,
and the rocks with which it is associated
approach to the state of grey-wacke ;
but as the latter rock passes by gradation
into sandstone, this can be no objection,
— nor can it be more so, to see coal shale
or slate-clay approaching to the quality of
clay-slate. In the mountains of the Forez,
there is a very extended coal formation,
similar to that of Yorkshire, reposing im-
immediately on granite — this I passed
through the following spring. That anthracite
is found extensively in the regular
coal formation, we have a proof in the
Welch coal fields in Brecknockshire. 2dly,
The bed of dark schist, with a saline ef-
florence, on the lower part of the Col de
Balme, if it be not a member of the
coal-formation, is most probably analogous
to the lias clay, or alum slate of Whitby. I