Between the two great beds of crystalline limestone worked in the valley of the Torano, are calcareous schists, passing into mica schist; and the impression I received, upon a rather rapid survey in 1871, was that the two great beds of marble are disconnected portions of the same mass on opposite sides of a sharp anticlinal fold shown in these schists. 1 The quarries at Massa produce blocks of white marble rivalling those of Carrara. These quarries are supposed to have been disco vered about 100 years A.C., and they were largely worked in the time of Augustus, who is called by Livy ‘ templorum omnium conditor ac restituor,’ as he transformed Borne from a town of brick to a city of marble. It is certain, indeed, that the quarries of Fantiscritti, situated about three miles from Carrara, were opened by the ancient Bomans, from the works of Boman art which have been discovered in them; amongst others, a relief of Jupiter with Bacchus. 2 The white marble of Carrara has been used for decorative purposes, in many of the churches and public buildings of Italy. 3 Under a smokeless atmo- 1 The mica schist was originally shale, the calcareous schist earthy limestone, while the crystalline marble was an ordinary Jurassic limestone. Their present condition is due to the subse quent metamorphic action. 2 Bsediker’s Italy, i. 264. s Also in the exterior walls of the Duomo and Campanile of Florence of the thirteenth century, in combination with dark
