as advocated hy M, Elie de BeaumarU. 141 



At the period of the deposition of the greensand formation, 

 a great rent running N. and S. separated the Erzgebirge from 

 the Iliesengebirge ; and an immense quantity of quartzy debris 

 accumulated there in the form of horizontal or gently inclined 

 beds, and corresponding to the configuration of the surface on 

 which they were deposited. Now, some geologists believe that 

 sienites made an eruption through the chalk and covered this 

 formation, and it is likely that these accidens were accompanied 

 by some disturbance. To such a cause I attribute the upheav- 

 ing of some inferior beds of the Jurassic system described by 

 Count Munster. (Deutschland of Keferstein, vol. vii. cap. i. p.l.) 

 Mr Naumann endeavours to connect with these igneous pheno- 

 mena the local dip of 45° — 70° of the greensand at Mariaschein, 

 Liesdorf, and Weilzen near Augsig, which would also be partly 

 the effect of a slipping down. At least we cannot yet draw 

 general conclusions from the facts, as the perfect, or nearly per- 

 fect horizontality of the greensand upon the older rocks, is the 

 predominating feature. Such seems to me to be the state of 

 the question. M. de Beaumont explains it according to his 

 own views, but it would be regarded in quite another light by 

 those who Hke Cordier, Naumann, Rozet, &c. have peculiar 

 ideas on the subject of slaty rocks. 



If M. de Beaumont had. not given up his belief in the con- 

 stancy of the parallelism of direction for every system, I would 

 here point out to him the Western Carpathians running N. E. 

 and S. W., and composed chiefly of greensand beds, which are 

 upheaved in such a manner as to shew that they ought to be- 

 long to his eighth and not to his seventh system. 



The eighth system is that of Mont V'lso. M. de Beaumont 

 admits with me, and in opposition to other geologists, that most 

 of the Alpine summits owe their height to a series of successive 

 elevations, (p. 640). The direction of the dislocation now under 

 consideration, is from N.N.VV. to S.S.E. ; and the examples 

 are found in the French Alps, the S.W. extremity of the Jura 

 from Nice to Lons le Saulnier, from Noir Moutiers to the south- 

 ern part of the kingdom of Valencia in Spain ; and in the Pindic 

 system, in Greece, pretty nearly parallel to a great arc of a great 

 circle passing through Mont Viso. These disturbances are sup- 



