3o4 PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. [April 5, 



A. Sti'ucture of the Mountain Group of the Zugspitze and the 

 TT'efterstein. — Tbe light-coloured upper Alpiue limestone forms a 

 liigli continuous escarpment, Tvliich is visible from a great distance, 

 and runs from the ^^"etterstein over the Dreithorspitzen to the western 

 slope of the Zugspitze towards the Eibsee. In the west and in the 

 south the upper Alpine limestone reposes in a regular succession 

 upon the older formations, which dip under it ; but on the northern 

 side of this momitain the arrangement of the strata is much more 

 irregular. They have been distorted and broken up by many exten- 

 sive faults ; aud isolated portions, comparable to enormous ice-floes 

 in a river or in an arctic sea, have been pressed together by later up- 

 heavals aud by lateral compressions, in the most extraordinary- man- 

 ner. Very often the upper Alpine limestone dips apparently regu- 

 larly under the dark marls aud limestones of the lower Lias ; and 

 these latter are then again covered by the upper Alpine limestone, or 

 even by the dolomites of the lower Alpine hmestone. 



These abnormal positions of the strata are very well seen, for 

 instance, on the little saddle between the Laugenfeld and the Osterfeld. 

 The dolomite which follows farther on in the Bodeulahne, also chppiug 

 to the north-east, must be considered as belonging to the lower 

 Alpine limestone, although it seems here to repose upon the Lias ; 

 but in its eastern and north-eastern prolongatiou, at Kriin and north 

 of tlie Barmsee, it is intimately connected with the dolomites of the 

 lower Alpiue limestones, which there form quite regularly the base 

 of the lower Lias. 



In following a section in a northern direction across the Wetter- 

 stein, the complicated structure of these mountains is seen in a very 

 interesting manner. 



In the Paiten Valley are laid open the marls of the lower Lias, with 

 an anticlinal dip, covered on both sides by the upper Alpine limestone. 

 On the hio-hest ridge of the Wetterstein these strata dip with an augle 

 of 40° and 50° to the north, 15° west. Along the northern foot of 

 the Wetterstein runs a great faidt, aud the strata of the lower Lias 

 are then pressed upon and partly over the upper Alpine limestones 

 in a most irregular manner. A very good example of this structure 

 is seen on the Kamithor, where the dark sandy marls, containing 

 many of the characteristic fossils, are very much contorted. 



Farther to the north, and separated by another fault, we have the 

 perfectly distinct upper Alpine limestone, followed by a long and 

 regular band of the lower Lias, the whole underUed by an extensive 

 mass of the dolomites. 



Another faidt, miming in the same east aud west direction, occurs 

 on the left side of the valley of the Ferchenbach. An observer 

 might at first think here, that the Lias marls must regularly underlie 

 the dolomites ; but the great line of fault, entirely separating the 

 two formations, is most distinctly traceable all along the bare escarp- 

 ments of the Stegreif. The rocks of the lower Lias then cover, with 

 various anticlinal dips, a broad low mountain ridge, and they are 

 uuderlied in a regular succession, on the right bank of the Valley of 

 the Kankerbach, by the dolomites of tlie lower Alpine limestone of 



