U N 



> lowest lr*i 



able point. In drterniiuing the 



_i of UM pull or road. valley is aeoended to tb source of the 

 _j wine* Aowetluongh it ; this will generally ba found on or 

 the rid** or Col. between two mountain, whenoeanother stream 

 w. thTSap. or ralley OB tli* othr aide. To thi* naeral rule 

 , ... fe. ^ . UMT* i* scarcely a paw which U not com- 



ttMre are lew caption. : there i* ecarcelra IMM which 

 BjMjiIrt by Hre.n***"* ; nd where the ridge or Col U wide enough to 

 ream UM water which stream* from them, and reUin it, lakes are 

 formed, the eourow of the riren which flow from the pueee : such U 

 UM Col of MuoUfenevre, where the Durance toward* Prance, and the 

 Dor* Riparia (called aleo Swine, from Hi pairing the town of 8n*a) 

 toward* Piedmont, flow from almost a common ouroe. The lakee on 

 XoaVCenk, on UM great St-Bemard, the St-Gothard, and the Ber- 

 nardin. are at UM eat** kind. 



Many of the loftiort .ummiU and paalu of the Alps hare been 

 .t-HH by adrenturmu naturalist* and traveller*. Saunure made 

 various valuable ezperimenU at the greateet elevation*, and little or 

 nothing hae been added to the reeulU which he obtained. The accent 

 of Moat-Blanc is now an almont every-day occurrence ; the Ortler- 

 Spit* and Monte-Roea have been aeoended eereral time*; even the 

 Jangfran. or Virgin, which owee iU name to it* luppoced inaccessi- 

 bility, ha* had iU higheet peak nirmounted by the alpenstock of a 



The number of mine* that are worked in the Alps i* not very con- 

 siderable when compared with the great extent of the mountain*. 

 The mineral* include gold, silver, quickmlver, copper, lead, iron, 

 alt. and anthracite coal The iron-mint* of Styria, Carinthia, and 

 Carniola are very product! r : the Bleiberg (lead-mountain of 

 Carinthia) furniahe* some of the best lead in Europe. There are also 

 lead-mine* in Savoy, at Pesey and Maoot The quicksilver-mine* of 

 Idria, which are about 37 mile* Jf.X.K. of Trieste, are well known 

 from the description* of traveller*. Salt U procured at Bex in the 

 Canton of Vaud. at Hall in the Tyrol, a little below Innsprock ; and 

 In the bed* of Hallein. Rdchenhall, and Berchtesgaden, all in the 

 neighbourhood of the town of Saliburg. 



Otalayy of At Alft. When we contemplate the Alps in the mas*, 

 w* are "truck with the fact, that while these mountains are furrowed 

 by deep valleys, extending in the direction of the main range, they 

 are al*o broken by other important valley* meeting the central parts 

 of the chain, at an angle which more or lew approaches a right angle. 

 Thi* configuration naturally *ugge*t* the idea of crack* and fissure* 

 produced by force* acting from beneath, and in a line of considerable 

 length. The longitudinal and tranirerse valley* precisely accord 

 with thi* riew, which, so far from being destroyed by a strict and 

 examination, acquire* additional strength by such 



It was at one time considered that the Alp* were produced by a 

 effort of Nature ; thi* opinion has, however, given way 

 , and H i* now very commonly received that they have 

 been elevated at different period*, probably at great and unequal 

 interval* of time, during which most important change* were taking 

 plan on the surfsc* of the earth generally. 



Proceeding to examine the nature of the geological evidence, from 

 weinfcr 



that the Alp* were not produced by one great upbunt 

 of rack*, we find that certain bed* have evidently been broken and 



tilted up at various angle* before others were deposited, for the latter 

 re*t qoMly on the fractured edge* of the former. In such cases we 

 have merely to inquire what are the equivalent* both of the upset 

 rook, and of that quietly iBSlinf on it in the series of rock* generally, 

 and we arrive at the relative date of the dislocation or fracture of the 

 first rook, a* it .most evidently have taken place before the second 

 If we now find, still pursuing our investigation* in 

 r, that the second rock ha* iUelf been broken and 

 tilted np in another part of the Alps, perhaps farther removed from 

 UM central chain, and that a third known rock rest* upon its dis- 

 rupted edge*, w* obtain another relative date, and a proof that the 

 Alp* have been produced by more than one elevation. It will be 

 evident that, by ~^J...l~g these researches, and by thoroughly 

 -*-* all part* of UM Alps, w* obtain the number of elevation* 

 by which their praeent general form ha* been produced. 



The contortion* and dislocation* of strata in theee mountains are 

 for the most part on a gigantic Male ; in some esses whole mountains 

 are formed of bed* (airly thrown over, *o that rock* which have 

 ndoabU.Uy been deposited the Uteet are seen to plunge beneath, and 

 U* support other* of more ancient date, and which, in fact, 

 NMtttate UM eotid matter on which they were formed. Thi* fact i* 

 not ovlv observed for abort distances but over considerable spaces, 

 and, bsfuie It was well understood, led to frequent error*. Upon the 

 whole, then, we find that the Alp* have been formed by the disruption 

 nd elevation of Mm*, at different period*; that the elevating force* 

 ted frosa beneath ; and that they were somttime* sufficiently intense 

 I of matter, now constituting Ugh mountains, so 

 that UM newer rock* are covered by older deposit* 

 *taf V> 45 decree*. 



the Alp* ar* more or lee* crystalline, and belong 

 irnoBftmlllfenxarook*. The central range* 



of UMM rock*, ai 



of (Mi., 



UkoeelaK adoth.ri 



ALPS. 148 



of the like character. Qneias may be considered a* very abundant, 

 more particularly that variety which ha* been named protogine, and 

 i* a compound of felspar, quarts, talc, and talcose chlorite, or steatite. 

 Thi* rock constitutes the mas* of Mont-Blanc and of several other 

 lofty mountain* ; sometimes it is schistose, while at others the beds, 

 if inch they can strictly be called, are of enormous thickness without 

 a schistose structure. The thick-bedded gneiss of the Alps often 

 contains large imbedded crystals of felspar or albite, and detached 

 portion* of it, even huge block*, have much the same appearance as 

 the granite of Dartmoor and Cornwall. This kind of gneios forms, 

 however, long continuous beds, which are sometimes contorted and 

 bent, showing that they have undergone disturbance in the same 

 manner as other stratified rocks. Mica-slate is also abundant, 

 frequently passing by insensible gradations into talooee-*late, and thu* 

 offering instructive examples of the mode in which mica and talc are 

 substituted for each other. The mica-elates of the Alps, as is the cue 

 with mica-slate* generally, occasionally contain many mineral*, among 

 which may be enumerated garnet, staurotide, sienite, hornblende, 

 tourmaline, and titanite, the firat being often so abundant a* really to 

 constitute a very important ingredient of the rock. The mica-slate 

 and gneiss alternate with each other, but when viewed on a large scale, 

 the gneiss appears to predominate in the lowest parts. Crystalline 

 limestone is occasionally associated with these rocks, but is by no 

 means abundant The grain is sometimes large, as, for example, that 

 included among the mica-date of the lake of Como, which has been 

 so extensively employed in building the celebrated Duomo at Milan. 



Although the great mass of Alpine dolomite is of less antiquity 

 than the class of rocks now under consideration, there are, nevertheless, 

 some portions of it which may be considered a* associated with the 

 gneiss and mica-slate in the manner of the saccharine limestone*. Tli 

 dolomite of Campo Longo (St-Oothard), several hundred feet thick, in 

 described as distinctly included between gneiss and mica-slate. The 

 dolomite of St-Gothard is celebrated for containing numerous mineral*, 

 among which may be enumerated sulphate of baryte*, corundum, 

 tourmaline, tremolite, talc, mica, and titanite. The thickness of these 

 lower stratified rocks must be very considerable ; for though subject 

 to bends and fractures, they by no means exhibit those very remarkable 

 flexures and contortions, so common in many parts of the great 

 calcareous series of rocks which rests upon them. 



In the Eastern Alps, a group of rocks reposes upon those above 

 noticed. The beds composing it have been referred to the grauwacke 

 series, the lowest portion of the fossiliferous rocks, or those which 

 contain the remains of animals and vegetables. Though the remains 

 of shells, corals, and encrinites are of the character of those detected 

 in this old fossiliferous rock, it would be desirable to obtain a greater 

 number and variety of such organic exuviae, as the same general 

 zoological character extends upwards in the series of fossiliferous rocks 

 to the magnesian limestone inclusive. It becomes therefore some- 

 what hazardous to fix with certainty upon any given portion of such 

 series, without a larger catalogue of organic remains than has yet been 

 afforded us. The group now under notice is described as graduating 

 into crystalline rocks beneath it 



Next in the order of superposition we find sandstones, slates, and 

 conglomerates, often of a red or variegated colour. These rocks have 

 a considerable range through the Alps ; and, though by no means 

 constantly present, occur, when they can be observed, above one or 

 other of those previously mentioned, and beneath the great mass of 

 calcareous rocks to be next noticed. The red colour of these beds is 

 more prevalent in the Eastern than in the Western Alps, though it in 

 also observable in the hitter. The celebrated Vallormne conglomerate, 

 long considered as an example of a mechanically-formed rock among 

 very ancient strata, constitutes a portion of these beds in their 

 continuation through the Savoy Alps. This conglomerate, though 

 tolerably abundant in the Vnllee ile-Vallonune, disappears somewhat 

 suddenly at the Col-de-Salenton, where the schist which contains the 

 rounded pebbles at the former place, occurs without them, the beds 

 consisting simply of sandstones and slates. This series of beds nmv 

 be referred to the epoch of the red-sandstone. The beds of which ft 

 i* composed have evidently resulted from the wearing down and 

 partial destruction of the more ancient strata ; as is well shown in the 

 conglomerates which contain the rounded fragments of pre-existing 

 rocks, such as gneiss, mica-slate, talc-slate, *c. Whether this has been 

 accomplished suddenly, by a violent disruption of the older beds, or 

 tranquilly, by a long-continued action of more moderate forces, . 

 cannot be considered as well shown ; but, at all event*, these beds 

 mark a break in the Alpine deposits, for they do not pas* into the 

 inferior rock*. 



Thin partial destruction of the older Alpine rock*, however produ, . .!. 

 was destined, at least in a great measure, to cease ; and an enormous 

 mass of calcareous matter was deposited, necessarily resting upon i li. 

 various rocks that constituted the ground on which the calcareous 

 matter was thrown down ; o that it sometimes directly reposes on 

 one, and sometime* on another, of the various older strata above 

 noticed. This mass, frequently termed the Calcareous Alps, because 

 limestone greatly prevail* in the mountain* which compoiu- 

 intermixed with argillaceous schist* and sandstones, both of wl.i, h 

 Yry considerably in their relative proportion* to the limestone in 

 different part* of the chain. 



