A Pebbly Quartz-schist, Pennine Alps. 401 



well-known Weisshorn Hotel. As any indication of a coarse clastic 

 structure in a true crystalline schist, so far as I knew, was a rarity, 

 I determined to examine this rock in the field the next time that I 

 happened to visit that part of the Alps. An opportunity presented 

 itself during the summer of last year, when I had the good 

 fortune to be accompanied by Mr. Fccles himself, as well as by 

 another fellow- worker in Alpine geology, the Rev. E. Hill. We 

 had intended to spend a week or two at Zinal, and therefrom to 

 visit the sections discovered by Mr. Eccles, which can be reached 

 by a rather long walk over the rough slopes of the range on the 

 eastern side of Val d'Anniviers. This intention, however, was 

 afterwards abandoned, as we found plenty of a similar rock in 

 much more accessible situations. 



The torrent from the Val d'Anniviers enters the Rhone Valley 

 through a deep and narrow gorge. Thus a considerable ascent 

 must be made in order to gain the slopes above it ; and the road 

 to Zinal, before entering the actual valley, mounts in a series of 

 zigzags up its eastern portal from the level of the Rhone. As 

 we ascended, 2 I passed the following rocks on the slopes : 

 (1) rauchwacke, (2) a dark slaty rock, (3) Pontiskalk, (4) Casanna 

 Schiefer ; the outcrops not necessarily occurring in this order. The 

 first of these four is the usual buff-coloured friable limestone, so 

 common in the Alps (though often in patches only), which is 

 generally admitted to be Triassic in age; the second, also, is a type 

 not uncommon in the Alps — a black slate or phyllite, assigned 

 to the Carboniferous system ; the third is a more or less calcareous 

 rock, rather variable in colour and character, but often a greyish 

 or darkish limestone, in places subcrystalline, but very different 

 in aspect from the calc-schists which are so largely developed 

 in the Pennine chain a little further to the south, and are associated 

 with the above-named quartz-schists. This Pontiskalk I believe 

 to be more modern than the crystalline schists, and think it may 

 belong to some part of the Palaeozoic era. The fourth, the Casanna 

 Schiefer, is a gneissic rock, not very coarse in texture, often considerably 

 crushed, fairly micaceous, and generally of a dullish grey colour. 

 A rock of a similar character often appears, in this region of the 

 Alps, to underlie the aforesaid group of crystalline schists. 



The floor, as it may be called, of the Val d'Anniviers is gained 

 after an ascent of about 1300 feet, not far from Niouc, and about 

 3^ miles beyond is Fang. Before reaching the latter hamlet, blocks 

 ot quartz- schist became abundant by the roadside, and it was soon 

 evident that ample materials for study were close at hand, for 

 many of them indubitably contained pebbles. Further examination 

 showed that a great talus of these blocks extended up for some 

 hundreds of feet to the foot of a cliff, obviously of the same rock. 

 To this, however, we did not ascend, as we perceived that we should 

 cross its outcrop higher up the valley. On reaching this we 

 found good sections, and afterwards we discovered indications of 



1 An old mule path cuts off some of the zigzags of the carriage road. I have 

 traversed both routes. 



DECADE IV. VOL. III. NO. IX. 26 



