December 31, 1914I 



NATURE 



493 



Querschnitt durch die Ostalpen vom Allgiiu zum 

 Uardasee " (Ixi. Bd., 3 u. 4 Heft, p. 513). This in- 

 cludes a critical description, district by district, of a 

 coloured section drawn on the horizontal and vertical 

 scale of I : 75,000, and published with this double part 

 of the Jahrbuch as a folded illustration three and a 

 half metres in length. The authors acknowledge 

 their indebtedness to the administration by the 

 Reichsanstalt of the Urban Schlonbach travelling- 

 fund. Bibliographies are appended to each division 

 of the description, and the whole may be regarded as 

 a development and replacement of the remarkable 

 single-handed work of Rothpletz, published in 1894. 

 The authors point out (p. 535) that Rothpletz recog- 

 nised the influence of great overthrusts, being in this 

 matter a pioneer well ahead of most of his contem- 

 poraries. 



The geological section includes subsidiary profiles 

 in the overfolded limestone Alps of the Lechtal area, 

 which have since pro\-oked some criticism in the 

 Verhandlungen of the institute; a traverse of the 

 upper Inntal under the Piz Lischanna; the Trias of 

 the Ortler, with schists overlying it on the north ; the 

 injection-gneisses of Monte Tonale ; the huge masses 

 of tonalite in the Adamello mountains ; and, finallv, 

 the contorted Triassic series of the Val Sabbia, lead- 

 ing down to the Lake of Garda. Numerous detailed 

 sections are added in the 180 pages of text. The 

 systematic exposition that characterises Ampferer's 

 work is recognisable in the account of the structure 

 of the northern limestone Alps (pp. 669-83), accom- 

 panied by diagrams that would have delighted the 

 heart of G. P. Scrope, and in the general summary 

 (pp. 697-709), in which stress is laid on the absorption 

 of masses of rock into the depths as a source of 

 mountain-folding. It is urged that The structures now 

 visible are based on much that is invisible, and that 

 the folded matter is not merely superficial, but repre- 

 sents the crests of masses which have sunk deeply 

 into the crust. The complete alteration, largely by 

 thermal processes, of these sunken masses, renders 

 the discovery of root-regions for the folded upper 

 layers impossible. These upper layers assume 

 anomalous positions in regard to one another through 

 fracture and overthrusting, and not through the forma- 

 tion of flattened and continuous overfolds. While a 

 localised region of the deeper crust is softened and 

 gives way, the more rigid masses on either side close 

 in and crumple the weakened portion, pressing a large 

 part downward, but leaving the superficial layers 

 above it contorted and even upthrust above the general 

 surface. " Der grosze Masseniiberschusz an der Ober- 

 flache ensteht durch Einsaugung tieferer Zonen 

 erdeinwarts." The authors argue that the visible 

 cr3'stalline masses beneath the strata that are over- 

 thrust, or, on the Decken theory, overfolded, form 

 far too narrow saddles, and could not have underlain 

 the broad region that would be occupied by the upper 

 rocks if these were spread out in their original posi- 

 tions. Hence something has disappeared from the 

 lower zones by absorption into the unseen regions of 

 the crust. 



O. Ampferer is also concerned (Ixii. Bd., p. 183) 

 v.ith a scheme for the representation of far more 

 detail than is usual on geological maps. He indi- 

 cates the actual strike of outcropping strata by con- 

 tinuous coloured lines on the contoured topographical 

 sheet, so that we can see at once how the edges of the 

 rocks lie on mountain-slopes or across valley-floors. 

 He also proposes to show, by a scheme of dots of 

 various shapes and colours, the character of detritus 

 on the surface and its origin from the several rocks 

 that enter into the structure of the district. 



R. v. Klebelsberg (Ixii. Bd., p. 461) reviews the 

 marine fauna of the Ostrau Beds of Moravia and 

 NO. 2 7, =^7, VOL. 941 



Silesia, and concludes that the marine intercalations 

 represent transgressions, in Middle Carboniferous and 

 Lower Coal-Measure times, from the sea that lay 

 continuously over Russia in the Carbonilerous period. 

 He hopes for a correlation of these overflows with 

 those of Britain. Belgium, and Westohalia, since they 

 may record events of wide significance, though of short 

 duration. The positions of these marine bands in the 

 Ostrau Beds is shown in sections by \V. Petrascheck 

 (Ixiii. Bd., plate 14). The marked folding of the 

 Upper Silesian coalfield occurred in Permian times. 



E. Hartmann, of Munich, insoired by Rothpletz, 

 furnishes a detailed study of " Der Schuppenbau der 

 Tarntaler Berge am VVestende der Hohen Tauern " 

 (Ixiii. Bd., pp. 207-388). Numerous types of rock are 

 described that are due to deformation and mylonitisa- 

 tion during overthrusting, and the glaucophane-schists 

 (p. 332) are referred to a mixture of diallage-horn- 

 blende rock with the slates into which it has intruded. 

 j The three flake-like sheets that have been piled on 

 j one another by the Alpine overthrusting are held to 

 I have been folded later (p. 376) by earth-movements 

 ! from north-west to south-east, and, to a less degree, 

 : from east to west. The author, like many workers 

 i in the eastern Alps, finds that the phenomena are 

 explicable by overthrusting, rather than by a trans- 

 I ference of material from a distance as part of a great 

 : overfolded sheet. 



' Franz Kossmat (Ixiii. Bd., p. 171) deals with the 

 I folded structure of the interesting region of potash 

 I salts in the Miocene system of East Galicia. Franz 

 I Toula (ibid., p. 621) continues his work in western 

 Bosnia, and describes a number of Triassic cephalo- 

 pods, which appear to differ little from species estab- 

 lished by Mojsisovics. G. Schlesinger (Ixii. Bd., 

 p. 87) discusses the ancestr\' of the proboscideans in 

 the light of an unexpected discovery- of Elephas 

 planifrons in Lower Austria. The remains come from 

 strata that are at the latest Middle Pliocene, though 

 vounger than the Pontian, with its Pikermi type of 

 fauna (p. 93), and the occurrence in Europe of this 

 typical Siwalik species leads the author to trace the 

 known species of elephants from their source in the 

 Favum to Europe and North America. He regards 

 E. planifrons as passing from India through Europe 

 to Africa, and as the direct ancestor of E. lueridionalis 

 (p. 150). The dwarf elephants of the Mediterranean 

 islands are referred to a double origin, both the 

 ancestors, E. planifrons and E. antiqtius. being, how- 

 ever, normally large forms (p. 171), and Schlesinger 

 adopts Abel's view that their degeneration in teeth 

 and size arose from the close interbreeding necessi- 

 tated by geographical changes. 



Franz Kretschmer's studies on the " Kalksilikat- 

 felse" in the gneiss of Moravia (Ixii. Bd., p. 35q) 

 form an important addition to the literature of 

 eclogites and amphibolites. It is now well recognised 

 that these rocks, which are so common as inclusions 

 in fluidal gneiss, are, in a great number of cases, 

 residues of calcareous strata invaded by a granite 

 magma. 



The series of papers published in the Verhandlungen 

 of the Reichsanstalt often contain new stratitrraphical 

 I conclusions, new records of fossils, and at times illu- 

 I minating criticisms. The controversy as to the struc- 

 I ture of the imposint^ limestone mass of the Wetter- 

 ; stein, which forms the northern wall of Tyrol above 

 Partenkirchen. is sustained by O. .Ampferer (1012, 

 p. 197) and O. Schlagintweit (1012, p. 313). The 

 former demolishes, with accompanving diagrams, cer- 

 tain impossible readings of the local structure ; the 

 latter opposes .-Xmpferer's view that the mass has 

 been thrust from east to west, and continues to con- 

 nect it with the overthrust sheet of the Inntal, and 

 not with the underlying Lechtal sheet. The Cainozoic 



