THE 



PHILOSOPHICAL MAGAZINE 



AND 



ANNALS OF PHILOSOPHY. 



[NEW SERIES.] 



JUNE 1829. 



LIX. 0)1 the Relations of the Tertiary and Secondary Rocks 

 forming the Southern Flanks of the Tyrolese Alps near Bas- 

 sano. By Roderick Impe^ Murchison, F.R.S. Sec. G.S. 

 F.L.S. ^c. 4t.* 



[With a Plate.] 



THAT various members of the secondary deposits replete 

 with marine remains are found in dislocated positions in 

 some of the highest regions of the Alps, was long ago noticed 

 by De Saussure; and the fact has since been confirmed by 

 many other geologists. The inference derived therefrom, that 

 such remnants can alone have been placed at these heights by 

 elevation from beneath the sea, is now considered by the 

 greater number of observers to be the only philosophical mode 

 of explaining the phaenomenon. The object of this memoir is 

 to determine whether the same causes of elevation were ap- 

 plied at a subsequent period to those newer or tertiary deposits 

 which now form a belt around the flanks of the Alps. The 

 solution of this question is called for, because the evidence on 

 this point has hitherto remained so imperfect, that several na- 

 turalists are still disposed to adhere to the old opinion, that 

 the forces which gave to the secondary rocks their actual con- 

 figuration, had entirely ceased to act before the deposition of 

 the tertiary strata. The following sections, which I made last 

 autumn on the southern flank of the Alps near Bassano, ap- 

 pearing to throw light on this curious and important point, no 

 apology is requisite for presenting them to the consideration 

 of geologists; indeed, any details of the striictHre of distant 

 groups of the tertiary deposits must be considered of high in- 

 terest when it is stated, that on the sides of the Alps and 



• Read before the Geological Society, March 1829; and comnuinicatcd 

 by the Autiior. 



N.S. Vol. 5. No. 30. June 1829. 3 F Apennines 



