NEOZOIC GEOLOGY IN EUROPE. 477 



folds on the Italian side of the Alps. There is in fact a kind 

 of pinching- in of the chain on this transverse line, and the 

 folds of the two flanks approach each other. Moreover, as 

 the various rock-zones of the Alps are traced from the 

 north towards this line, they sink down below the surface 

 (with the exception of the subalpine zone). Thus the line 

 corresponds with a general transverse lowering of the 

 whole of the northern part of the chain ; and it is approxi- 

 mately parallel to the axes of folding in that portion of 

 the range. 



Bertrand believes that this feature is due to a large 

 synclinal belonging to the same system as the folds to the 

 north ; and he looks upon the plain of the Po and the 

 depression of the Canal du Midi in Languedoc as the 

 easterly and westerly continuations of this depression. He 

 believes, in short, that in Palaeozoic times the chain of the 

 Alps did not bend round, as it does now, to join the 

 Apennines, but that it was continued with its original 

 direction towards the Montagne Noire in Languedoc. 

 The southern part of the chain is of later date, and the 

 direction of the folds which produced it, is different. 



The folds in the Alps to the north of the region in- 

 vestigated by Bertrand have been described by Haug (2), 

 and from his account it appears that the axes of the folds 

 do not run exactly parallel to the chain, so that as we pass 

 along any one orographical zone we cross slowly from 

 one system of folds to the one lying behind or in front 

 of it. 



Still farther to the north the structure of the Chablais 

 has again been described by Lugeon (3). His views, how- 

 ever, have already been noticed in a previous article. 1 



In the Eastern Alps we have at last a section across 

 the whole chain, from Tolz in the south of Bavaria to 

 Bassano in the north of Italy. We owe it to Rothpletz 

 (4), and it is the first complete section which has been 

 attempted since the Geologische Durchschnitt der Alpen von 

 Passau bis Diiino, published by von Hauer so long ago as 



1 "Science Progress," June, 1894. 



