228 



EARTH FEATURES AND THEIR MEANING 



Syrian desert (plate 10 B). It is usually, however, in the older 

 sediments that such structures may be recognized; as, for ex- 

 ample, in the squared towers and buttresses of the Tyrolean 

 Dolomites (Fig. 244). Here the larger blocks appear in the thick 



FIG. 244. Squared mountain masses which reveal a distribution of the joints in 

 block patterns of different orders of magnitude. The Pordoi range of the Sella 

 group of the Dolomites, seen from the Cima di Rossi (after Mojsisovics). 



bedded lower formation, the dolomite, divided into subordinate 

 sections of large dimensions; but in the overlying formations 

 in blocks of relatively small size, yet with similarly perfect sub- 

 equal spacing. 



The observing traveler who is privileged to make the journey 

 by steamer, threading its course in and out among the many is- 

 lands and skerries of the Norwegian coast, will hardly fail to be 

 struck by the remarkable profiles of most of the lower islands 

 (Fig. 245). These profiles are generally convexly scalloped with a 

 noteworthy regularity, and not in one unit only, but in at least two 

 with one a multiple of the other (Fig. 246) . As the steamer passes 

 near to the islands, it is discovered that the smaller recognizable 

 units in the island profiles are separated by widely gaping joints 

 which do not, however, belong to the unit series, but to a larger 

 composite group (Fig. 246 6). Frostwork, which depends for its 



