20 M. Mohs's Summary of Geognostlcal Phenomena. 



act correspondence with this original formation, and we shall 

 therefore not thus be misled to regard this appearance in an er- 

 roneous point of view. It is known that there are phenomena 

 of this kind, which seem to prove incontrovertibly a displace- 

 ment of the rocky masses. But when we follow up such ap- 

 pearances in their full connexions, we meet with such as pre- 

 sent the same phenomena, and yet directly make known to us 

 that an actual displacement could not have taken place. In 

 order not to become discursive on this subject, whose further 

 elucidation does not belong to the present subject, we must 

 content ourselves with the remark, that we not unfrequently 

 find apparent displacement at such points where limestone and 

 granite are directly in contact. We see that these mountain 

 masses are partly bounded by the most characteristic distinct- 

 concretion-surfaces (and these are, when we do not consider 

 the nature of these sm-faces, the most deceptive appearances), 

 partly, intimately, and strongly united with one another, and 

 combined in such a manner as to render it impossible accu- 

 rately to assign boundaries to the two ; and, finally, we see 

 them so dovetailed into one another, and as it were fastened 

 together, that every thought of a movement having taken place 

 must disappear. 



The tabular stinicture of the limestone next the contact with 

 the granite, is generally, where present, in the greatest regula- 

 rity, and the changes which the two mountain-masses produce, 

 are mutual. But what completely overturns the opinion that 

 phenomena of this kind are produced by the actual movement or 

 displacement of the parts of the mountain-mass, are the obser- 

 vations which have been made on veins which seem to be dis- 

 placed, while the portions of the mountain-mass in which their 

 different parts occur have preserved their original position. 

 We ascertain this from the fact that bed-like masses in the 

 mountain-mass through which the displaced veins or fissures, 

 or, in one word, the separating surfaces proceed, and which must 

 accordingly have also been necessarily displaced, have suffered 

 no shift. Since, then, phenomena of this kind cannot be ex- 

 plained by shifts, while those mentioned above (together with 

 these) can be explained in a manner more consonant with the 

 phenomena of nature, we must, in reason, consider well before 



