SWISS NATIONAL PARK—-BLAND 503 
GEOLOGICAL CHARACTERISTICS 
The National Park region presents an entirely different rock for- 
mation from that of the other Swiss and French Alps; it is more 
nearly related to the Austrian Alps, and it has therefore been 
named Austro-Alpine or eastern Alpine. The eastern Alpine range 
forms a mighty wall from south to north. It is this that makes the 
section between Scarl and Tarasp so beautiful; with the soft, gently 
undulating slate mountains in the north and to the south the sharp 
ridges of the eastern Alpine Dolomites. 
Val Cluoza, the first acquisition of the National Park Commis- 
sion, rises with forbidding blackness against the lighter Dolomites. 
It towers in baffling uniformity above the isolated valleys; its débris 
chokes the murmur of the streams; its cheerless desolation and oppres- 
sive silence is scarcely relieved by the glittering snow peaks of its 
background; and its very mouth is blocked with wild gorges, making 
a picture which can scarcely be found elsewhere in the Alps. 
These mountains are comparatively young, belonging to the middle 
tertiary period. Dolomite is the ruling formation. Grotesque 
points, broken ridges, and unending slopes of débris make up the 
greater part of the lofty peaks. These belong to the Trias forma- 
tion and are called principal dolomites. Another dolomite series 
is distinguished by beds of lime, colored slate, sandstone, and 
gypsum, called the Raibler stratum. An older Trias dolomite, the 
belemnite, is also found in this region, and under it lies another 
dolomite lime series, shell limestone. Shell limestone, belemnite, 
and Raibler stratum form the peaks of the Astras and Starlez group 
as well as the range which stretches from Piz Daint, Munt da 
Buffalora to Munt la Schera. On the principal dolomites lies still 
a younger Trias stratum, the Rhaetian. 
The region is particularly rich in petrescent stones and fossils. 
Between Piz Murter and Piz Terza are found hundreds of graceful 
pieces of coral (Lithodendren) and small round brachipods (Terebra- 
tula greparia). 
Sediment of the younger Jura formation is found in the south. 
It is dark limestone and slate of the Lias formation and is also rich 
in fossils (belemnite and ammonite). In Val Trupchum lies a vein 
of still younger minerals, red, green, and white hornstone. 
Colored sandstone and Verrucano (green and red quartz and slate) 
are chiefly found on the south side of Ova del Fuorn, in Val Mustair 
and in Scarl, while gneiss appears in the upper Val Mustair and 
granite in the upper Val Scarl and in the Sessvena group. 
