03 advocated by M. Elie de Beaumont. 145 



mostly in different directions. One of the most recent must 

 have produced the Mont Blanc chain, as we there find the er- 

 ratic blocks placed upon the uppermost molasse. Von Buch, 

 in 1811, and Von Raumer, in 1817, opposed this fact to the false 

 name of Protogine, which Jurine gave to the rocks of Mont 

 Blanc. (See my Memoir. Geolog. p. 357. and following.) 



M. de Beaumont thinks it is easy to trace in the Alps the. in- 

 termixture of the systems of elevation, and he mentions in it 

 some circular elevated cavities like that at Lorieche, at Der- 

 barrens, and round Mont Blanc. If M. de Beaumont de- 

 ciphers so easily the intermixtures (entrccroissemens) of sys- 

 tems. Professor Studer would be desirous to have an answer in 

 regard to a range of hills in the Canton of Berne, where the 

 upheaved beds alter their directions without fracture or perceiv- 

 able intermixture of system. Studer is a well informed geolo- 

 gist, and one who seeks truth, and is not afraid of being contra- 

 dicted when he is wrong. 



The upheaving of the Western Alps has taken place in a di- 

 rection from N.N.E. to S.S.W^, or more exactly from N. 26° E. to 

 S. 26° W. In the interior of the Alps the rides having been pro- 

 duced on ground already raised out of the water and hilly, the 

 dislocations have extended only to the chalk formation (com- 

 pare my Memoires Geologiques, p. 60.) ; but on the borders of 

 the Alps the middle tertiary rocks have been upheaved, as at 

 Superga near Turin, at the foot of the great Chartreuse in 

 Provence, in Entlibuch, &c. M. de Beaumont finds a relation 

 between the position of the cones of phonolite at Howentwiel 

 and the small island of Ilion ; but I think the asserting this is 

 at least hazardous. 



M. de Beaumont also thinks that this system is connected 

 with the direction of the eastern coast of Spain, a chain in Mo- 

 rocco, &c. ; and he terminates his account of it by some consi- 

 derations on the configuration of Europe after this elevation. 

 (See my Memoires Geologiques, p. 61 — 75.) 



According to M. de Beaumont, the hyaena, the ursus spe- 

 laeus, the Siberian elephant, the mastodon, the rhinoceros, and 

 the hippopotamus, perished during that cataclysm, — an hypo- 

 thesis which, in regard to some of the animals at leasl, requires 

 confirmation. 



VOL. XVir. NO. XXXIII. — JULY 1834. K 



