A topological invariant of the geodesic laminations on a modular surface is
constructed. The invariant has a continuous part (the tail of a continued
fraction) and a combinatorial part (the singularity data). It is shown, that
the invariant is complete, i.e. the geodesic lamination can be recovered from
the invariant. The continuous part of the invariant has geometric meaning of a
slope of lamination on the surface.Comment: to appear Beitr\"age zur Algebra und Geometri