the Revolutions which have taken place on the Globe. 251 



nearly N.E. and S.W., was not referrible, like that of the 

 analogous rocks in Westmoreland, to a much more remote 

 epoch. 



The dislocation of the coal-measures of Saarbruck is also 

 probably referrible to the same epoch as that of Glamorgan- 

 shire and the Pays Bas, as it offers nearly the same direction 

 and characters. 



In the environs of Bristol the magnesian conglomerate 

 horizontally covers the edges of the dislocated carboniferous 

 beds, and the gres de Vosges is seen at Saarbruck in the same 

 position. The elevation of the beds now under consideration 

 ought therefore to be anterior to the deposition of the mag- 

 nesian conglomerate of Bristol and of the gres de Vosges ; 

 but as the todte-liegendes {gres rouge), properly so called, 

 does not on any point rest on the carboniferous beds elevated 

 in the direction in question, we may be permitted to presume 

 that their elevation took place after the deposit of the todte- 

 liegendes. 



V. System of the Rhine. — The Vosges and the Swartzwald 

 form two groups of mountains, to a certain extent symmetrical, 

 terminating one opposite the other in two long cliffs, the ge- 

 neral directions of which are parallel to each other, and to 

 the course of the Rhine which flows between them from Bale 

 to Mayence. These two cliffs, between which extends the great 

 valley of Alsace, are the most clearly defined characters of 

 that assemblage of mountains which M. von Buch has grouped 

 together under the name of the system of the Rhine. They 

 are partly formed by beds of the gres de Vosges, and appear 

 due to great fractures or faults, with a direction nearly S. 15° 

 W., and N. 15° E., which have broken them after their depo- 

 sition. The epoch of this disturbance has necessarily preceded 

 that of the deposition of all those beds which extend from one 

 cliff to the other, forming the slightly undulating base of the 

 basin of Alsace, and among which occur the red or variegated 

 sandstone {gres bigarre), the muschelkalk, and the variegated 

 marls {marnes irisees). The last three formations have ex- 

 tended round the mountains constituting the system of the 

 Rhine, and mark out the winding of the coasts, bathed by the 

 sea during that period of tranquillity v.'hich succeetled those 

 commotions, the effects of which have been so well preserved. 



VI. Sj/stem o/the Sotith-'west coasts of Britanriy, of La Vendee, 

 of Morvan, of the liuhmerisoaldgebirgc, and of the Thuringerxmld. 

 ■ — The oolitic series, comprising the lias and its inferior sand- 

 stone, has been deposited in an assemblage of seas and gulfs 

 which marks out the windings of the various systems of moun- 

 tains above noticed, and at the same lime those of a peculiar 



2 K 2 system, 



