DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.5541#0042
14
GEOLOGY OF CORFU.
[Chap. ft.
made from the west to the east, from the constrained and
artificial habits of civilization to the free and unembar-
rassed manner of semi-barbarism. Let the traveller extend
his wanderings towards the rising sun as far as he please
or can, he will find all further changes only gradual and
slow, whether he goes to Turkey or to Persia, to the burn-
in o- sands of India, or to the wall of China. The very coun-
tenancies of the men were changed, and the great step
which we had made became still more apparent, as we
walked through the streets to our hotel, and saw the
moustached shopkeeper sitting cross-legged at his window.
We were also struck by another peculiarity in the manners
of the people, viz., the almost total absence of females,
whereas in Europe all the peculiarity of costume is usually
confined to women's dress.
We spent three weeks in Corfu, during which time we
made numerous excursions to different parts of the island,
examining its geological structure, or enjoying its beautiful
scenery. Our stay, however, was prolonged beyond what
we had originally intended, in consequence of an attack
of fever which seized my companion, and prevented his ac-
companying me on a short visit which I made to the island
of Paxo. The geology of this island was extremely simple,
consisting, as far as I saw, of nummulitic limestone or scaglia,
but with considerable variation in the dip and strike of
the beds, proving to a certain degree the local violence
with which they had been upheaved. The greater part
of the island of Corfu belongs to the same formation, but
contains a much greater variety in its constituent members.
In Corfu, many siliceous beds occur in the limestone, a dif-
ference which also exists in the cretaceous beds of the
north of Europe. Other beds are arenaceous, containing
large quantities of a small bivalve shell, Astarte carinata,
which I did not find in the island of Paxo. We also ob-
served in the neighbourhood of Corfu, tertiary formations,
consisting of blue clay and fine sand. In the clay we found
a few fossils, as Pecten, Echinus, Dentalium, Nucula, Crab,
GEOLOGY OF CORFU.
[Chap. ft.
made from the west to the east, from the constrained and
artificial habits of civilization to the free and unembar-
rassed manner of semi-barbarism. Let the traveller extend
his wanderings towards the rising sun as far as he please
or can, he will find all further changes only gradual and
slow, whether he goes to Turkey or to Persia, to the burn-
in o- sands of India, or to the wall of China. The very coun-
tenancies of the men were changed, and the great step
which we had made became still more apparent, as we
walked through the streets to our hotel, and saw the
moustached shopkeeper sitting cross-legged at his window.
We were also struck by another peculiarity in the manners
of the people, viz., the almost total absence of females,
whereas in Europe all the peculiarity of costume is usually
confined to women's dress.
We spent three weeks in Corfu, during which time we
made numerous excursions to different parts of the island,
examining its geological structure, or enjoying its beautiful
scenery. Our stay, however, was prolonged beyond what
we had originally intended, in consequence of an attack
of fever which seized my companion, and prevented his ac-
companying me on a short visit which I made to the island
of Paxo. The geology of this island was extremely simple,
consisting, as far as I saw, of nummulitic limestone or scaglia,
but with considerable variation in the dip and strike of
the beds, proving to a certain degree the local violence
with which they had been upheaved. The greater part
of the island of Corfu belongs to the same formation, but
contains a much greater variety in its constituent members.
In Corfu, many siliceous beds occur in the limestone, a dif-
ference which also exists in the cretaceous beds of the
north of Europe. Other beds are arenaceous, containing
large quantities of a small bivalve shell, Astarte carinata,
which I did not find in the island of Paxo. We also ob-
served in the neighbourhood of Corfu, tertiary formations,
consisting of blue clay and fine sand. In the clay we found
a few fossils, as Pecten, Echinus, Dentalium, Nucula, Crab,