k 



Sir R. I. Murchison*8 Notes on the Alps and Apennines. 283 



strata, like those of the Vicen tine, are pointed out, particularly 

 at Thones in Savoy, at the Hoher-Sentis in Appenzell and near 

 Sonthofen in Bavaria, where these intermediate beds, partak- 

 ing of all the mineral characters of the great supercretaceous 

 groups, or " flysch," are still characterized by a Gryphsea, 

 which is not to be distinguished from the G. Vesicularis of the 

 upper chalk. Above this zone {i. e. in tracts free from dislo- 

 cation and inversion), no traces have been discovered of any 

 one fossil referable to the cretaceous system ; the overlying 

 strata being unequivocally nummulitic and shelly rocks, which 

 are linked together by position and fossils, and which on the 

 north flank of the Alps (especially at Sonthofen and Kressen- 

 berg) as well as on the high summits of the Diablerets and 

 Dent du Midi, represent the lower tertiary of the Vicentine. 

 The upper portion of this group, so vastly expanded on the 

 north flank of the Alps, is a collection of shale, impure lime- 

 stone, and sandstone, the " flysch" of the Swiss, to a great 

 extent, the " Weiner Sandstein, or fucoid grit" of the Aus- 

 trians,* and to a great extent, the " Macigno" of the Italians. 

 The whole group of nummulite rocks and " flysch," much 

 loaded with chlorite pre-eminently a " green sand," and often 

 assuming a very ancient lithological aspect, is not, as many 

 geologists (including himself) supposed, an upper member of 

 the cretaceous rocks, but really represents the true eocene. 

 The adoption of this view, which it is supposed all palaeonto- 

 logists must adhere to, seems already to be also in great part 

 taken by M. Boue, in opposition to his former opinion. In 

 reviewing the physical relations of the upper secondary and 

 lower tertiary rocks of the Alps, it is made manifest that the 

 independence of any one member of this succession cannot be 

 assumed from its unconformability to others in certain locali- 

 ties, inasmuch as such appearances are proved to be local 

 phenomena only, by a more general survey which detects the 

 order to be unbroken and continuous. In the Alps, therefore, 

 as in Russia, where deposits of several ages are conformable, 



* In an able map of the Northern Alps of Bavaria and Austria, M. Morlot 

 had placed the nummulite and flysch rocks above the chalk. Now, however, 

 great confusion prevails among the Austrian geologists respecting the position 

 of the " Weiner Sandstein," which has recently been mapped as •' Keuper."' 



