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mountains are uplieaved by volcanic force, and converted from 

 carbonate of lime into Dolomite by the vapour of magnesia evolved 

 from the molten volcanic rocks below and penetrating the lime 

 stone above." There was one serious objection to this theory, and 

 that was that tliese mountains appeared in about twelve or more 

 wholly separated groups, and all these groups were as nearly as 

 possible of the same height. It seem >1 very strange that there 

 should be twelve volcanoes some 20, 30, 12, and 6 miles from each 

 other, all reaching the same height within 1 00 feet or thereabouts. 

 He (Mr. Davies) thouglit these facts were rather against tbe theory 

 of volcanic upheaval. And, again, some fossils were found in 

 these Dolomites. Besides, the flat top found on every one of these 

 mountains negatives the idea of igneous protrusion. 



Before stating the next hypothesis, he would like to say that 

 these mountains assumed one of three shapes almost invariably. 

 One set of them was upright, pinnacled, and castellated, like the 

 Langkofel and Funffingerspitze ; others were of the writing desk 

 shape, such as the Mvolan, which had a layer of raibl impregnated 

 with iron protecting the top of it ; and the others resembled a 

 level long spreading plateau, (' e. , the Schlern and Sella, and were 

 also protected on the top. The upright ones were not so protected. 

 The next theory was that of Lepsius, who said " Schlern Dolomite 

 was a stratified marine deposit, covering an immense area, and that 

 the same deposit varied in thickness in the Schlern and Fassa 

 districts, mainly owing to the outpouring, during its period of 

 deposition, of masses of volcanic matter." There was a great 

 difficulty in the way of that theory. If this was a sedimentary 

 rock, there might be expected to be Schlern Dolomite all over the 

 district. Yet they found that it occurred in isolated groups which 

 sprung up suddenly to a great height. The answer was that all 

 the rest had been washed away by denudation. He (Mr. Davies) 

 thouglit that anyone who went into Tyrol and saw these mountains 

 standing in the manner they did with no connection between them 

 would say there was an immense amount of denudation to answer 

 for. But besides that here was the difficulty. If the Langkofel 

 mountain composed of " Schlern Dolomite " was taken to represent 

 the thickness of the original marine deposit, then these other 

 mountains must also have once had nearly the same thickness all 

 over them, at least some of them which were close by. The 

 Schlern plateau was not five miles away, and if that had been 

 unprotected, and if they could see the protective cap on the Langkofel 

 they woiild saj- that the cap prevented the latter from being worn 

 away by rain and winds. But this was just the opposite of what 

 they did find. What they saw was that the Schlern itself and 

 other lower masses were protected, while the Langkofel was some 

 thousands of feet higher, and yet it was not protected. He 

 thought that showed that they had in this cap or deposit an 



