Observations on certain Tertiary Formations at the south base of the Alps, in North Italy

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Having last spring paid a visit to the south side of the Alps, my principal object being to see and examine the magnificent moraines of Ivrea, and the Val d’ Aosta, which supplied the materials of which they are composed, I was led into the examination of certain Tertiary formations which this great mass of moraine material generally conceals. These Tertiary beds, exposed at a few points near Ivrea, have long since been noticed by the Italian geologists who have studied and written about this part of the country. My interest thus aroused, I afterwards proceeded to visit similar patches at Boca and Maggiora, east of the Sesia river; but it was not until I got to the Lago d’Orta, and was walking over the moraines at its southern end, that I came on the most interesting section containing the best-preserved fossils. These latter have been examined and named by Dr. Gwyn Jeffreys, and the appended list greatly increases the interest and value of this communication. I shall begin therefore by giving a detailed account of this section, referred to casually in my Address to the Geographical Section of the British Association at Southport in 1883, and I shall afterwards refer to other localities in their turn. Section at Buccione . Those who know the Lago d’Orta will remember the old tower that stands so conspicuously on a steep point at the southern end of that lovely little lake, which, though very small when compared with its neighbour the Lago Maggiore,