Sir R. I. Murchison's Notes on the Alps and Apennines. 285 



sections, it was shewn that the Oxfordian, cretaceous, and 

 eocene or nummulitic groups had conjointly undergone such 

 great flexures as in many instances to produce absolute in- 

 versions, and in others great ruptures, both longitudinal 

 and transverse. Whilst the direction of the sedimentary 

 rocks is shewn to conform to the axes of certain great el- 

 lipsoids of crystalline rock, whether eruptive or purely me- 

 tamorphic, the deviations from such conformity are very 

 numerous, particularly where the strata wrap round the ends 

 of each separate crystalline mass ; in illustration of which a 

 geological map of the Canton of Glarus, by M. Escher, was 

 appealed to. Seeing tliat the forms of the anticlinal and 

 synclinal folds exhibited in his sections coincided with the il- 

 lustrations of the Appalachian mountains and other chains 

 recently produced by Professor H. Rogers, the author — with- 

 out offering any opinion on the theory of that able geologist 

 — pointed out that in the Alps, as in the United States, the 

 long and slightly-inclined slopes of each anticlinal face the 

 great centre of disturbance, whilst the short and steep sides 

 of the same dip away from the chain. In reference to the 

 very frequent phenomenon of the younger strata) including 

 the molasse) dipping under the older, particularly along the 

 line of great longitudinal faults, Professor Rogers presented 

 diagrams explanatory of such overlaps in accordance with his 

 theory. 



Carpathians, — A brief sketch, the result of a survey in 1843, 

 is then given of the northern flanks of the Carpathian moun- 

 tains. Indicating the general succession northwards from 

 the Tatra chain, the author points out how a mass of num- 

 mulitic limestone, overlying secondary rocks, dips under shale 

 and sandstone like the flysch of the Alps, such deposits re- 

 presenting, as in those mountains, the eocene of geologists. 

 An outer ridge (Zafflary and Rugosnik) of Oxfordian Jura, 

 and chiefly Lower Neocomian, according to Zeuschner and 

 Keyserling, rises abruptly through these superior deposits ; 

 and between it and Cracow are undulating hills, much broken 

 up and dislocated, consisting of sandstones, shale, &c., in 

 parts of which Professor Zeuschner has discovered many se- 

 condary greensand or Neocomian fossils. These sandstones 



