﻿Vol. 64,] ANNIVERSARY ADDRESS OF THE PRESIDENT. Ivii 



from them the abundant fossils with which he enriched the museum 

 in Vienna. He was at once a stratigrapher and a palaeontologist. 

 His constant aim was not only to place the successive formations 

 in their true chronological order, to follow their lithological 

 changes from district to district, and to connect these details with the 

 ancient geographical conditions of the Alpine region, but above all 

 to ascertain the facies of each fossiliferous group of strata so as to 

 obtain a palaeontological basis for their stratigraphical subdivisions, 

 and at the same time such evidence of the progressive evolution of 

 the organic forms as might be preserved among the deposits. Oppel 

 and Quenstedt had shown how a system of zonal classification by 

 means of fossils could be worked out among the Jurassic formations ; 

 and Mojsisovics sought to apply a similar principle to the enormously 

 developed and abundantly fossiliferous Trias of the Salzkammergut 

 and surrounding districts. "When he began this work no one had 

 divined that the structure of the Alps is so largely determined by 

 horizontal displacements as it has since been ascertained to be, that 

 in an apparently continuous and unbroken series of flat stratified 

 formations the sequence may be deceptive, and that the oldest parts 

 of the section may really lie at the top. It is possible that he may 

 here and there have been misled by this delusive structure. We 

 linow that at various times he changed his views as to the true 

 stratigraphical position of some members of the Trias. 



Mojsisovics was the author of many papers on his favourite 

 subject, the larger portion of which appeared in the various publi- 

 cations of the Austrian Geological Survey. They began in 1862 

 with a contribution on the age of the Hierlatz-Schichten, and hardly 

 a year elapsed from that time up to the end of his life without 

 some contributions from his pen. In these numerous writings 

 the story of his progress in the exploration and description of the 

 Alpine Trias is revealed. But probably his most generally appre- 

 ciated and best-known memoir is that which he published in 1879 as 

 an independent work, with the title of ' Die Dolomitriffe von Siidtirol 

 & Venetien.' This volume, with its large geological map and its 

 discussion of the geological and biological problems of the Alpine 

 Trias, marks a notable epoch in the literature of Alpine geology, 

 and has had much influence on the subsequent progress of the 

 subject of which it treats. 



It is probable, however, that our departed friend will take 

 higher rank as a palaeontologist than as a stratigraphical geologist. 

 Here again he concentrated his efi'orts on one limited domain, of 



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