Geology of the Harz Mountains. 259 



denudation of the Scottish Highlands has been so great since 

 the Miocene period, how much greater must have been the 

 denudation of the Harz since the end of the Cretaxeous period. 

 There has been abundance of time for the removal, not only 

 of the Secondary formations which covered most of the Harz 

 to a depth of perhaps 2000 or 3000 feet, but also of some of the 

 underlying core rocks. The granite of the Brocken was not 

 laid bare when the final submergence took place as we have 

 seen, and its present exposure is due to the last denudation 

 subsequent to the removal of the Mesozoic covering. 



The fact of the Senonian rocks resting unconformably on the 

 upturned edges of the Turonian and underlying Jurassic and 

 Triassic rocks near Goslar, as shown on section Xo. 3, proves 

 that the final upheaval began before the end of the Cretaceous 

 period. The inversion must have accompanied the first 

 stage of upheaval, and if the sections are correctly inter- 

 preted there must have been a period during which the 

 upturned and shattered strata were laid bare and exposed 

 to subaerial denudation before the Senonian beds were de- 

 posited. Evidence of the upheaval and denudation of Pre- 

 cretaceous Secondary rocks exists at other parts of Germany. 

 At Peine, in Hanover, for example, there is at the base of 

 the Senonian series a great deposit of limonite pebbles con- 

 taining Liassic fossils.^ Precisely similar pebbles occur in 

 the Neocomian "Hils conglomerate" along the northern border 

 of the Harz, which points to a disturbance having occurred 

 so early as the beginning of the Cretaceous period at this 

 locality. The Senonian series contains, in addition to lime- 

 stones and marls, limestone conglomerates in the district 

 between Harzburg and Langelsheim, while towards the east 

 a great development of sandstone takes place. Although no 

 Jurassic fossils have, to my knowledge, been found in the 

 Senonian group at either district, it seems possible that these 

 fragmental beds may be partly derived from the waste of 

 the Secondary formations in course of slow elevation along 

 the southern side of the dislocation. The upheaval may have 

 gone on locally and irregularly at first, but seems not to 

 have been great enough to raise the Palaeozoic rocks above 



1 See von Groddeck, *' Erzlagerstattenlehre," pp. 265, 266. 



