206 Prof. T. G. Bonney—Quarts-Schists from the Alps. 
up to the mountain crests;' but it is difficult to ascertain the exact 
nature of the fold. In one place—just west of the hotels—we found 
only two outcrops of the quartz-schists; but further away to the 
south (working towards the shoulder overlooking the stream from 
the Hochbalm Glacier) two other bands of quartz-schists made their 
appearance, one seemingly above and one below the higher of the 
former outcrops. Have we here a double fold or are some other 
beds intercalated? There is something to be said for each view, 
and as the matter is of little moment I did not attempt to work it 
out in detail. On the opposite side of the above-named stream we 
find, at the base of the mountain-buttress corresponding with the 
one just described (in descending order), calc-mica-schist, and below 
this two bands of quartz-schist, the higher about 10 feet, the lower 
about 8 feet thick, separated by about 3 feet of cale-mica-schist, 
very micaceous in lower part, saccharoidal, with thin mica-layers, 
in upper. As the bands of quartz-schist mentioned in the previous 
description at least are many yards apart, one of them (probably the 
highest) * appears to be locally split up by a calcareous band; lower 
down, after some more calc-mica-schist, is another band of quartz- 
schist. The same rocks also occur’on the Fee-Gletscher alp— 
further to the south-west. 
Another section occurs on the opposite side of the valley in which 
Saas-Fee stands, which requires some description. This is on the 
north-eastern part of the Mittaghorn.4 Here we found in one place 
the quartz-schist separated from the gneiss by a fairly thick zone of 
cale-mica-schist; the latter then thins gradually out (as the path 
descends) till the quartz-schist is in contact with the gneiss. After 
this has happened the quartz-schist is thrown into §-like curves, 
and in one place a mass of calc-schist only a few feet thick remains 
infolded in the top part of the letter. The quartz-schist in contact 
with the gneiss is micaceous, contains some elongated spots like a 
felspar, and seems as if it passed rapidly into the gneiss, which is 
somewhat affected by pressure, is not a coarse-grained variety, and 
contains (in larger amount) a similar mica. The annexed section 
may serve to make the relation clearer. Nvidently the quartz-schist 
1 Tt is indicated as correctly as the scale permits on the Swiss map, sheet xxiii. 
Here the gneiss above is distinguished from that below. There are some differences, 
but I think that we may regard them as of minor importance, and the gneiss broadly 
as one group. 
2 To give an idea of the possible complication I may mention that in one place 
we found a small patch of a cavernous, yellowish, soft, calcareous rock, containing 
numerous fragments from the cale-schist group. It might have been a tufa; but 
the position made this interpretation improbable, and I strongly suspect it was the 
last remains of an infold of rauchwacke (Trias). This rock is mapped as here and 
there in the middle of the crystallines in this part of the Pennines, always in mere 
strips, and. with the once overlying Jurassic rocks wholly gone. 
3 I refer only to the apparent position. 
4 The path from Saas-Fee ascends and crosses the northern spur of the Mittag- 
horn and then runs for some little time along the eastern face at a height probably 
of rather more than 3000 feet above the Saas-thal. The sections described are found 
soon after the corner is turned, but the cale-mica-schist and quartz-schist can be also 
seen for some distance running obliquely down the western slope of the mountain. 
