e collected on the grass, where the stony
crust was already formed, although the verdure of the leaf was as yet but
imperfectly withered (page 114): a fact which renders less extraordinary
M. Peron's statement that the excrements of kangaroos had been found
concreted by calcareous matter. Peron volume 2 page 116.)

(*******Footnote. Voyage 2 116.)

The nearest approach to the concreted sand-rock of Australia, that I have
seen, is in the specimens presented by Dr. Daubeny to the Bristol
Institution, to accompany his excellent paper on the geology of Sicily;*
which prove that the arenaceous breccia of New Holland is very like that
which occupies a great part of the coast, almost entirely around that
island. Some of Dr. Daubeny's specimens from Monte Calogero, above
Sciacca, consist of a breccia, containing angular fragments of splintery
limestone, united by a cement, composed of minute grains of
quartzose-sand disseminated in a calcareous paste, resembling precisely
that of the breccia of Dirk Hartog's Island: and a compound of this kind,
replete with shells, not far, if at all, different from existing species,
fills up the hollows in most of the older rocks of Sicily; and is
described as occurring, in several places, at very considerable heights
above the sea. Thus, near Palermo, it constitutes hills some hundred feet
in height; near Girgenti, all the most elevated spots are crowned with a
loose stratum of the same kind; and the heights near Castro Giovanni,
said to be 2880 feet above the sea, are probably composed of it. But
although the concretions of the interior in Sicily much resemble those of
the shore, it is still doubtful whether the former be not of more ancient
formation; and if they contain nummulites, they would probably be
referred to the epoch of the beds within the Paris basin.

(*Footnote. Edinburgh Philosophical Journal 1825 pages 116, 117, 118, and
254 to 255.)

The looser breccia of Monte Pelegrino, in Sicily, is very like the less
compacted fragments of shells from Bermuda, described by Captain Vetch,
and already referred to:* and the rock in both these cases, nearly
approaches to some of the coarser oolites of England.

(*Footnote. These specimens are in the Museum of the Geological Society.)

The resemblance pointed out by M. Prevost,* of the specimens of recent
breccia from New Holland, in the museum at the Jardin du Roi, to those of
St. Hospice near Nice, is confirmed by the detail given by M