NOEGGERATH EARTHQUAKE IN SWITZERLAND. 9 



cigno ; its strata dip S.W., at an angle of 24° to 30°. The mercury 

 appears to be disseminated irregularly over a space of probably very 

 narrow horizontal extent ; no trace of the metal being found in a 

 trench dug outside the house. It does not seem, however, to be 

 confined exclusively to one spot, as several instances of its occur- 

 rence around Cividale, both in ancient and modern times, have been 

 recorded. 



The macigno of Cividale and the beds of solid calcareous sand - 

 stone (quite analogous to the " granitic marble " of the lower 

 Bavarian Alps) are thought by Chev. de Hauer to belong to the 

 eocene nummulitic formation, notwithstanding that some few rolled 

 fragments of Hippurites have been here and there imbedded in the 

 sandstone. 



The recently discovered mercuriferous drift-deposits, such as those 

 of Suibeck near Luneburg, &c., found by Prof. Hausmann, — those of 

 lUye, west of Deva in Transylvania, mentioned by M. Grimm, — the 

 deposits of Lisabon and Montpellier, known some time since, &c., 

 bear some resemblance to the deposit of Gagliano, but nevertheless 

 differ from it in several essential particulars. 



The deposit at Suibeck seems to have belonged originally to a 

 block of sandstone washed into the drift with other fragments, and 

 subsequently totally disintegrated. This explanation is not appli- 

 cable to the mercuriferous marl of Gagliano, the constituent par- 

 ticles of which were evidently carried to their present site as minute 

 grains and not in blocks. Two other quicksilver-deposits in Tran- 

 sylvania, mentioned by M. Grimm (Baron Hingenau's ' Austrian 

 Mining Journal,' 1854, No. 35), although not yet fully understood, 

 seem to bear a closer analogy with that of Gagliano. Springs issuing 

 from the Carpathian sandstone near Esztelek, north of Keydy Vasar- 

 hely, in Transylvania, and near Neumarckt, in Galicia, are said to 

 carry sometimes with them globules of mercury, especially after 

 violent thunder-storms. This fact, together with the existence of 

 the cinnabar-mines of Dumbrawa and Baboja, near Zalathna, is a 

 proof that mercury and its salts are to be met with in the Carpathian 

 sandstone of other regions ; although, according to M. Grimm's 

 statements, the mercury and cinnabar deposits of Idria, together 

 with the cinnabar-ores of the Pototschnigg ravine, in Upper Carniola, 

 according to M. Lipoid, are subordinate to the carboniferous group, 

 At all events the mercury of Gagliano may prove to be worth work- 

 ing on scientific and economical principles. [Count M.] 



On the late Earthquake m Switzerland. 

 By Prof. Noeggerath. 



[Proceed. Imp. Geol. Instit. Vienna, November 13, 1855.] 



In September 1855, Prof. Noeggerath visited the Visp Valley 

 (Vallee de Viege), Canton de Valais, in order to study the effects of 



