228 Professor Hoffmann on the Geological Investigations 



a great extent laterally, for the Jura, strikingly parallel to the 

 great principal mountains, though at a great distance from 

 them, runs through Switzerland in a northern direction ; and, 

 in this range, which anew rises like a barrier, and presents its 

 steep declivity towai'ds the Alps, there appear a large number 

 of subordinate parallel chains, following one another in an im- 

 dulating manner, and forming, in their stratified profiles, some- 

 times acute saddle-shaped arrangements, sometimes basins or 

 broken-up arches, between which many parallel valleys occur. 



Palassou* had previously observed the same feature in the 

 Pyrenees, but without attempting an explanation ; for that 

 range of mountains is also composed of an innumerable num- 

 ber of distinctly-separated parallel chains, which, collectively, 

 follow a course from NW. to SE. at right angles to the 

 Alps. 



But this remarkable phenomenon is nowhere to be observed 

 in its iv\\ extent in greater perfection, though on a smaller 

 extent as to height, than in the hilly country of northern 

 Germany, and which I myself have subjected to a careful and 

 long-continued examination. It is only necessary to cast a 

 glance over the geognostical map of that district, in order to 

 be at once struck by the distinctness of this remarkable fact ; 

 and it certainly appears singular that it had not sooner ex- 

 cited the attention of geologists. 



We perceive that the largest of the older mountain-groups 

 which occur there, forms a perfectly connected mass with the 

 distinctly prevailing NW. and SE. longitudinal direction, and 

 it is certainly not an accidental circumstance that all the other 

 older masses in the region, such as the Thiiringer JVald, the 

 older rocks in the Magdeburg territory, and in Altmark, as 

 well as the separate eminences of the older rocks in the Werra 

 districts, follow precisely the same parallel direction. Farther, 

 we find arranged in precisely the same direction, not only all 

 the small parallel chains which border on these older masses, 

 and which present steep, disturbed, and broken-up forms, 

 but also all the considerable ranges of hills which lie scattered 

 between these older mountain masses. 



* Essai 8ur la Mineralogie des Monts Pyrenees. 



