Page:Transactions of the Geological Society, 1st series, vol. 4.djvu/320



XVII. Geological Remarks on the Vicinity of Maestricht.

By the Rev. W. E. HONY, Fellow of Exeter Coll. Oxford.

[Read 16th December, 1814.]

interest excited by the magnificent specimens which have been discovered at different times in the neighbourhood of Maestricht, induced me when in the Low Countries in the summer of the present year, to go somewhat out of my way in order to visit so celebrated a spot. I am sorry that my stay there was necessarily so short that I could take only a very hasty survey of that country. I am induced however to lay before the Society a short sketch of what I saw, because I believe that though so much has been written and said on the subject of the fossils of Maestricht, but little is known in England as to the relative situation of the strata containing them. The mountain of St. Pierre commences about a mile south from the town of Maestricht, and extends in a direction towards Liege for nearly three leagues. It is an insulated hill forming a ridge, the sides of which are for the most part very steep. The subterraneous quarries must have been worked from a very early period, and are said to extend through its whole length. The hill presents an almost perpendicular escarpment towards the Meuse, and it is in walking on this side of it that the strata are seen to the greatest advantage.