TIIK MlnCKNK SB] 



and nil-it- especially in the s<>ulli-ra.-t, subsidence occurred which 

 can in! tin- si-a northward through I'mvi-ncr into Dauphind and 

 Sa\"y, through parts of Switzerland, and through Austria and 

 Hungary to the Carpathian mountains. The history of this epoch 

 has not yet been very clearly deciphered, and then- may have been 

 too great a desire on the part of some continental geologists to find 

 an equivalent of each stage in every region. In other words, it i- 

 not certain whether all the stages recognised in France are repre- 

 sented iu Switzerland and Austria ; and in some districts there are 

 indications of a break at the base of the Helvetian stage. 



Suess divided the Miocene Series of Central and Eastern Europe 

 into two groups, which he called the first and the second "Medi- 

 terranean Stages," and he came to the conclusion that the main 

 upheaval of the Alpine chain took place in the interval between 

 t hfin. Subsequent researches have tended to confirm this view, 

 and it is generally believed that it was at the close of the Burdi- 

 galian or the beginning of Helvetian time that the greatest 

 orogenetic movements took pkce. By these movements the rocks 

 of tin- Alpine ranges were bent into sharp flexures and overfolds, 

 and whole tracts of strata were thrust northward over and along 

 planes of dislocation. These pressures ridged up the older rocks 

 of Swit/erland and Austria into mountains upon which rain and 

 running water came into active operation, and some of the results 

 are exhibited in the Nagelfluh conglomerates of Northern Switzer- 

 land (see p. 581). 



According to Suess, while the Alps were being ridged up in the 

 manner above mentioned, " in other places, as in parts of Tuscany, 

 Austria, \NYstt-rn Hungary, and Styria, great in -sinkings were 

 formed, and in these lie leaf-bearing lignitiferous beds which are im- 

 mediately subsequent in age to the Schlier. It is about this time 

 that the Alpine basin of Vienna was broken in, that the Alps were 

 separated from the Carpathians, that the eastern downbreak of 

 the Alps with the gulf of Gratz was formed, that the way was 

 paved for the subsequent discharge of the Danube to the east, and 

 that the Tuscan part of the inner Apennine depression was formed 

 or at least indicated. It is probable that most of the inner 

 Carpathian subsidences belong to this period." It seems more 

 likely, however, that these subsidences were of subsequent date, 

 and led to the extension of the Helvetian Sea over these areas. 



At the same time in Northern Europe the effect of these crust- 

 pressures showed itself along the old lines of Armorican and 

 Hercynian folding, a new series of flexures was produced along 

 these lines across the south of England and through the north- 

 east of France, Belgium, and Germany. It was by these movements 



