Reviews — Lubbock's Scenery of Switzerland. 427 



careful studies of all the literature available, lie has given to the 

 inquiring Briton, who, bent on spending his summer holidays in 

 a clarnber over glaciers and snowfields to reach some lofty peak, is 

 curious to know how the mountains were brought forth, and how 

 the hills and the dry land were formed. For such this book will be 

 a most acceptable offering ; replete as it is with keys to unlock the 

 many geological puzzles which the Alps afford. Nor need he be 

 surprised to find that more than a hundred able and accomplished 

 men of science in England, France, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, 

 and Italy have laboured to provide the plans and explanations, the pith 

 of which Sir John Lubbock has given us in a condensed form in the 

 little book before us. In concluding his task, the author thus 

 summarizes the causes which have led to the present scenery of 

 Switzerland. 



" In Permian times there were probably mountains where the 

 Alps now rise, but this ancient range was gradually removed by 

 denudation ; moreover, the land sank, and during the Permian, 

 Liassic, Jurassic, and Cretaceous periods, there was deep sea where 

 the Alps now rise. There were certainly great changes of level, 

 but they were all continental, and that is to say, they were approxi- 

 mately the same for the whole area ; there was no compression and 

 no folding. 



"That the sea during this period must have covered the site of 

 the present Alps, is proved (1) by the fact that we find no trace of 

 its southern shores, no littoral deposits. If the Alps had then 

 existed, pebbles, etc., from them must have been found in the 

 Liassic, Jurassic, and the Cretaceous rocks. This is not the case : 

 indeed, these rocks contain no pebbles of any kind, and the fossils 

 in them are all indicative of deep water far away from land. 

 There are no conglomerates or gravel beds between the Permian 

 and the Upper Eocene. Again, (2) we find remains of the secondary 

 strata protected in the troughs of the folds. These sedimentary 

 deposits therefore extended completely over the site of the present 

 mountains, and though no extensive remains of these deposits now 

 occur in the Central Alps, this is because they have been entirely 

 stripped away. 



"The elevation of the country is due, not to upheaval from below, 

 but to lateral pressure owing to the cooling and consequent con- 

 traction of the earth. It has been calculated that the strata between 

 Basle and Milan, a distance of about 130 miles, would, if extended 

 horizontally, occupy 200 miles. There has consequently been a 

 shortening of no less than 70 miles. 



" For some time the central ranges alone were above water, and 

 the mountain torrents brought down gravel and boulders, forming 

 the ' Nagelflue ' of the Kigi and the central plains. 



" The Alps, therefore, from a geological point of view, are very 

 recent. Our Welsh hills, though comparatively speaking insignifi- 

 cant, are far more ancient. They had been mountains for ages and 

 ages before the materials which now compose the Kigi or the 

 Pilatus were deposited at the bottom of the sea. Indted, we may 



