H 



i 



\\ 







1 





at 



! 



■isly 



aw 

 'mil.; 



of tie 





\ and 

 many 



■ >1WS 



. j-ame 



ice. or 



8 is 

 by the 



ar tf* 



t COD- 



i lap* 



, r e art 



iitflus 



late a 

 nee o f 



lofty 









Ch. X/] 



ICE-ACTION IN THE EOCENE PERIOD. 



20!) 



latitude of Paris, and another in the neighbouring Gulf of 

 penas, lat 46° 50', or the latitude of the Bernese Alps, both of 

 which convey large erratic blocks to the Pacific, into which 



numerous 



In a bed 



Supposed signs of ice-action in the Eocene Period.- 

 of coarse conglomerate of the Eocene period in the Alps, 

 phenomena in many respects analogous to those of the neigh- 

 bourhood of Turin present themselves. This coi 



b lomer 



member 



shale which is provincially called ' flysch,' and which, by its 



remains 



nummulitic 



series. The well-known ' Vienna sandstone ' is a member 

 of this flysch, which extends for 300 miles at least, east 

 and west, from Vienna to Switzerland, along the northern 

 flanks of the Alps, and is again seen in the south, near Genoa, 

 and in several parts of the Apennines. Its thickness is very 

 jreat, amounting to several thousand feet, and occasionally, 



authorities, 6,000 feet. It is often finely 

 stratified, and singularly barren of fossil remains, although 

 in a few places it contains fucoids. Here and there, as in 

 the Sihlthal, near the lake of Zurich, and in the Toggen- 



some 



burg in St. Gall, large blocks 



are enclosed in it, 



some 



them angular and others rounded. These blocks are occa- 

 sionally of limestone, and contain ammonites and other 

 fossils of the oolitic and liassic formations, as described by 

 Dr. Bachmann. * Blocks also of a red variety of granite of 



composition, unknown in situ in any part of the 

 f in the same conglomerate of the flysch. In 



^ but at Habkeren, 

 on the north side of the lake of Thun, many are seen of enor- 

 mous dimensions, one of them being 105 feet in length, 90 in 

 breadth, and 45 in height. They have lost their edges, either 

 b } r friction or decomposition, but are not polished or striated. 

 -There has been a lively discussion as to whether the largest 



%sch, or were simply erratics 



* Bachmann, Petrifakten unci erra- 

 J«ne Jurablocke im Flysch des Sihl- 



thals **d Toggenburg. 



VOL. I. P 



Habkeren blocks came 



t 



t Murchison, Structure of Alps, Quart. 

 Geol. Journ., vol. v. 1849. 



