TERTIARY FORMATIONS OF SWITZERLAND. 145 



of lignite, which add much to the geological interest and something to the 

 economical advantages of the district under consideration. There is also 

 found in the West of the Canton of Vaud, not far from the lake of Neu- 

 chatel, a white building-stone containing much calcareous matter in its 

 composition, but circumstances prevented me from paying that attention 

 to so interesting a stratum which it well deserves from the geologist. It 

 will be found forming a hill close to the little town of Thierrens, and I 

 observed it in one spot dipping about 40 degrees to the South- West*. 



Having thus described the mineral composition of the different strata 

 observed, I come now to speak of the general outline of the country, and 

 the deductions to be drawn from considering the physical features produced 

 probably by disturbances acting after the beds had been deposited. 



Although, in comparison with the stupendous chain of the Alps, the 

 central and more cultivated portion of Switzerland is properly designated 

 as a valley, yet even in this valley there occur eminences which in a 

 more level country might well be called mountains. About five miles 

 from Vevey, and to the west of the coarse conglomerate called Nagelfluhe, 

 there rises a hill of Molasse to the height of nearly 4000 feet, and a chain 

 of hills may be observed extending from this (which is called the Tour de 

 Gourze) towards the North-East, whose heights are successively, 3000, 

 4000, and 3500 feet above the sea. In speaking of these altitudes, how- 

 ever, it must not be forgotten, that the level of the lakes of Geneva and 

 Neuchatel is considerably more than twelve hundred feet above the sea, and 

 thus the hills do not in reality form such striking features in the landscape 

 as others of no greater actual elevation, but rising from a lower plateau, 

 in other countries, and under different circumstances. Imbedded in the 

 sandstone of which these hills are composed, there occurs in the line of 

 the hills, and about ten miles North of Vevey, one of the beds of lignite 

 already alluded to, and we are enabled accordingly to determine the dip 

 with some accuracy, at all events in this spot ; I observed that it was very 

 considerable, certainly more than 50°, and its direction variable, though on 

 the whole Easterly, being here, and in one or two other places along the 

 line, towards the South-East, in a few others North-East, and some- 

 times nearly due East. 



* This would appear to be a local deviation from the general dip of the district. 

 Vol. VII. Part II. T 



