ANTWERP CRAG.
Strata of the same age as the Red and Coralline Crag of Suffolk have been long
known in the country round Antwerp, and on the banks of the Scheldt, below that
city; and the lowest division, or Black Crag, there found, is shown by the
shells to be somewhat more ancient than any of our British series, and probably
forms the first links of a downward passage from the strata of the Pliocene to
those of the Upper Miocene period.
NEWER PLIOCENE STRATA OF SICILY.
(FIGURE 132. Murex vaginatus, Phil.)
At several points north of Catania, on the eastern sea-coast of Sicily-- as at
Aci-Castello, for example, Trezza, and Nizzeti-- marine strata, associated with
volcanic tuffs and basaltic lavas, are seen, which belong to a period when the
first igneous eruptions of Mount Etna were taking place in a shallow bay of the
Mediterranean. They contain numerous fossil shells, and out of 142 species that
have been collected all but eleven are identical with species now living. Some
few of these eleven shells may possibly still linger in the depths of the
Mediterranean, like Murex vaginatus, see Figure 132.
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