1848.] MURCHISON ON THE STRUCTURE OF THE ALPS. 189 



mate connexion of some rocks which must, I conceive, be considered 

 tertiary, with others which are miquestionably of secondary age. 



And here geologists will recollect, that when Professor Sedgwick 

 and myself wrote upon the Austrian Alps, the structure of the inte- 

 rior and flanks of the Swiss Alps had not been illustrated by Studer, 

 Escher, and others. M. Studer had then, it is true, published a 

 portion of his excellent work on the Molasse, but his first attempt 

 at a classification of the older formations * had not appeared. Good 

 even as that effort then was, it now requires much revision to bring 

 it up to the state of our present knowledge ; and so must it ever be 

 in so complicated and difficult a chain f. 



On attending the meeting of the Swiss naturalists at Soleure (after 

 I had passed through Savoy), I was fortunate enough to hear a me- 

 moir read on Nummulites and other Foraminifera by M. Rllttimeyer 

 of Berne. On a previous occasion Professor Brllnner had described 

 some of these forms as well as their geological position:]; ; but desirous 

 that the purely zoological portion of this labour should be undertaken 

 by a professed naturalist, he engaged his friend M. Riittimeyer to 

 join him, and the first result was the memoir 1 have alluded to, which 

 will be followed by the publication of a joint work. In pursuing my 

 inquiries I induced Prof. Brimner to accompany me in excursions into 

 parts of the little cantons which he had not explored. 



In the Beattenberg near Thun a band of coal is associated with the 

 nummulitic deposit, i. e. in the strata beneath the flysch. This coal, 

 which is now extensively used in the manufacture of gas at Berne, is 

 therefore precisely in the same geological horizon as the coal of En- 

 trevernes near Annecy, of Grand Bornand in Savoy, and of the Dia- 

 bleretz. In this respect there is indeed a close analogy between the 

 northern and southern flanks of the Alps ; for, as will hereafter be 

 shown, coal is pretty largely extracted from the lower strata of the 

 nummulitic rocks of the Vicentine, between Vicenza and Recoaro, and 

 at Monte Bolca, in a region where these deposits unquestionably overlie 

 everything cretaceous. 



The nummulitic rocks of the Beattenberg (/") at once repose 

 on the neocomian limestones (b), and are surmounted by flysch (^), 



* See Transactions of the Geological Society of France, 1834. 



t No one is more aware than M. Studer of the necessity of frequent revisions 

 and corrections of all the older sketches or attempts to map geologically any por- 

 tion of the Alps before the organic remains were developed. In reference to his 

 own small map of the region around Berne, he candidly explained to me, that 

 the legend attached to it must now be much changed. — See Trans. Geol. Soc. Fr. 

 vol. iii. p. 379. 



X See Professor Briinner's memoir, ** Beitrage zur Kenntniss der Flysch und 

 Nummuliten Formation," Mittheilungen der Naturforschenden Gesellschaft zu 

 Bern, 1847. In this memoir Professor Briinner compares the nummulitic strata 

 to the north of the lake of Thun with those of the Diableretz, the Nummulites 

 globulus (Leym.) being common to both. In both are species of Cerithia, Chem- 

 nitzia, &c., whilst the Neritina Fischeri (Briinner) of the Thun district is scarcely 

 to be distinguished from the N. lineolata (Deshayes) of the Paris basin. 



M. Riittimeyer has since published an extract from his work in the Bibliotheque 

 Universelle de Geneve. 



VOL. V. PART I. P 



