285 

 NOTES AND COMMENTS. 



THRUST MASSES IN THE DOLOMITES. 



A geological work by Mrs. Ogilvie Gordon, entitled ' The 

 Thrust-Masses in the Western District of the Dolomites ' in 

 South Tyrol, has just been published by the Edinburgh Geo- 

 logical Society in a Special Part of its Transactions, Vol. IX. 

 The text extends to 91 pages, and is illustrated by 2 geological 

 maps, 18 coloured geological sections, and a number of original 

 photographs and sketches. Mrs. Gordon describes a series of 

 gigantic thrust-masses composed, in that district, of Permian, 

 Triassic, Jurassic, and Cretaceous rocks, that have travelled from 

 east to west above the older crystalline rocks of the Central 

 Alps, and have subsequently been downthrown along with the 

 older rocks and suffered further deformation in the region of the 

 Dolomites. The base of the series is composed of brecciated 

 rock-material belonging to the floor over which the subjacent 

 mass has passed and to the lower layers of the subjacent mass. 

 The lower layers of each mass differ from place to place, as they 

 were masses that had been already plicated in east and west 

 direction, and in the course of the overthrust movements new 

 plicational forms were superinduced both in north and south 

 and in east and west directions. Similiarly the cross-faults 

 intersect, or coalesce with, the east-west, E.N.E.-W.S.W. and 

 W.N.W.-E.S.E. faults, and form fault-networks which com- 

 pletely isolate the adjacent areas in the- crust. The chief 

 Dolomite mountains, such as the Langkofl and Plattkofl 

 Massive and Sella Massive, are areas of inthrow surrounded by 

 faults, within which the higher thrust-slices have been pre- 

 ser\'ed. 



RABBIT MEAT. 



We are glad to find that at last the botanists are following 

 some of their geological friends in being able to see books in the 

 running brooks, sermons in stones, and fun in everything. ' The 

 Sportophyte, Volume I., Number i,' issued on All Fools' Day, 

 is said to be ' a British Journal of Botanical Humour.' The 

 editor, a single lady, (presumably), insists on the first of the 

 series (23 pp.) being a ' double number,' and threatens that if 

 ' by the first of April there is not enough matter to make a 

 number, what there is will be preserved in spirit, and the 

 editor guarantees a double number [the italics are hers] the fol- 

 lowing year.' We are glad to find that the first serio-comic- 

 botanico-sportophyte emanates from Manchester, and doubtless 



1910 Aug. 1. ^ 



