142 PROFESSOR ANSTED, ON THE 



the Tertiary beds occurring in what is called the Great Helvetic Basin, 

 and occupying the space between the High Alps and the Jura chain. 

 I shall afterwards proceed to remark upon the various smaller basins met 

 with in the Jura district itself, and partially rilling up the valleys be- 

 tween the different ranges of that mountain chain. 



From whichever side Switzerland is entered, whether from France, 

 Germany, or Italy, no traveller, not even the most indifferent about 

 geological phenomena, can have failed to notice the physical structure of 

 the country, or the effect to the eye of that series of deposits concerning 

 which I am about to speak. The high range of mountains to the South, 

 nearly terminated at each end by the two highest of the European 

 mountains, Mont Blanc, and Monte Rosa — the continuation of these 

 lofty eminences toward the North-East, forming the " High Alps," and 

 extending into the Northern Cantons of Switzerland — the less lofty but 

 still considerable elevations running parallel to this principal range in 

 the West of Switzerland towards France, and known as the "Jura" 

 chain — all these very remarkable and strikingly beautiful mountain chains 

 surround a tract of land comparatively level and rich in every thing 

 that can administer to the wants or luxuries of man ; and it is this 

 cultivated district, this comparative plain in a land of mountains, 

 which marks out the extent of the Swiss Tertiary deposits, and has 

 hitherto been, as I observed, almost neglected by the geologist. It 

 requires, perhaps, to have been on the spot to understand the tempta- 

 tion offered by the near proximity of such mountains; but those who 

 have been there, and have hurried on with all the enthusiasm and ex- 

 citement of novelty to breathe the pure and exhilirating mountain air, 

 will wonder but little that the plains have been neglected, and that the 

 Tertiary Geology has given place to the Alpine. 



It was hardly an effort of philosophy which induced me to labour in 

 the less trodden field : — a conviction that I could not hope to make much 

 way where so many and far superior and more practised geologists had 

 preceded me, may indeed have induced me the more readily to be contented 

 in a less distinguished sphere, but my expeditions from Lausanne were 

 necessarily short, and my opportunities limited. 



