*
[footnote] *On the geognostic relations of Carrara ('The City of the Moon',
Strabo, lib. v., p. 222), see Savi 'Osservazioni sui terreni antichi
Toscani', in the 'Nuova Giornale de' Letterati di Pisa', and Hoffmann, in
Karsten's 'Archiv fur Mineralogie', bd. vi., s. 258-263, as well as in his
'Geogn. Reise durch Italien', s. 244-265.
Whether at some points granular limestone may not have been formed in the
interior of the earth, and been raised by gneiss and syenite to the surface,
where it forms vein-like fissures,* is a question on which I can not hazard
an opinion, owing to my own want of personal knowledge of the subject.
[footnote] *According to the assumption of an excellent and very
experienced observer, Karl von Leonhard. See his 'Jahrbuch fur
Mineralogie', 1834 s. 329, and Bernhard Cotta, 'Geognosie', s. 310.
p 264
According to the admirable observations of Leopold von Buch, the masses of
dolomite found in Southern Tyrol, and on the Italian side of the Alps,
present the most remarkable instance of metamorphism produced by massive
eruptive rocks on compact calcareous beds. The formation of the limestone
seems to have proceeded from the fissures which traverse it in all
directions. The cavities are every where covered with rhomboidal crystals
of magnesian bitter spar, and the whole formation, without any trace of
strtification, or of the fossil remains which it once contained, consists
only of a granular aggregation of crystals of dolomite.
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