284 Sir R. I. Murchison's Notes on the Alps and Apennines. 



the limits of formations can alone be defined by their imbedded 

 organic remains. 



The author next developed the true age of the " Molasse 

 and Nagelflue" of the northern portion of the Alps. Citing 

 the researches of Professor Studer, M. Escher, and others, 

 he shewed that the axis or older part of these tertiary de- 

 posits was usually removed to some distance from the higher 

 ridges of cretaceous and eocene rocks, and consisted of fresh- 

 water strata ; that the central or marine accumulations are, 

 from their fossils (as collected in the Cantons St Gallon and 

 Berne), of sup-Apennine or Pliocene age, and that the great 

 overlying portion of molasse and nagelflue, whieh frequently 

 (owing to enormous dislocations) seems to dip under the 

 older rocks, out of which it has been formed, is again, as far 

 as can be ascertained, of terrestrial and fresh-water origin. 

 Following these deposits in ascending order, to their outer- 

 most and superior zone, they are found to be surmounted by 

 the well-known lacustrine formation of CEningen, formerly 

 described in some detail by the author.* The remarkable 

 feature of this deposit is, that although it has unquestionably 

 been formed long after pliocene marine deposits (in which 

 shells exist undistinguishable from those now living), its 

 Fauna and Flora consist entirely of lost species. The exa- 

 minations of its quadrupeds, chelonia, and reptiles by Her- 

 man von Meyer and Owen, of its fishes by Agassiz, and of 

 its plants by Goppert, all lead to this conclusion. Even in 

 respect to the insects of CEningen, Professor Heer, of Zurich, 

 has recently satisfied himself that in a multitude of species 

 which he is about to describe not one is identifiable with a liv- 

 ing form. Hence, Sir Roderick maintains, that the terms 

 Miocene and Pliocene cannot be correlatively deduced from 

 submarine and terrestrial formations ; since, if this be done 

 in Switzerland, types of lost terrestial species overlie exist- 

 ing marine forms. 



In concluding his observations on the Alps, attention was 

 called to the extraordinary contortions and convulsions they 

 had undergone. By diagram^ of various transverse natural 



* See Trans. Geol. Soc. Lond., vol. iii., New Series, p. 277. 



