Structure of the Eastern Alps. 3G9 



If, on the contrary, we ascend from Haring- by the right bank of the Inn, 

 we first see masses of red sandstone and conglomerate at the base of the irreat 

 precipices of Alpine limestone, and then we find, rising regularly from beneath 

 them, a long succession of dolomitic beds, alternating with red marl and sand- 

 stone, dipping to the north, and forming a succession of low ridges as far as 

 Schwatz, where they rest against the primary rocks of the central axis. 



In this way all connexion between the strata on the opposite sides of the 

 river is entirely interrupted. A great complex movement of elevation seems 

 to have broken up the neighbouring portions of the chain, and thrown them 

 into positions the most discordant, and at the same time to have formed that 

 long transverse chasm through which the waters of the Inn escape into the 

 plains of Bavaria. What was the date of these internal movements we do not 

 now inquire ; but it is obvious that they were anterior to the existence of the 

 unconformable tertiary basin which we now proceed to describe*. 



The dislocated secondary rocks which flank the Inn on either side, are 

 expanded between the towns of Rattenberg and Kufstein, in such a manner 

 as to leave between these two places an elliptical basin about twenty miles in 

 lengtii, and four or five in its greatest breadth, on the sides of which are 

 found the remnants of ancient tertiary strata. They are exhibited on tiie 

 largest scale near the village of Haring, where they form hills seven and eight 

 hundred feet high, and contain a subordinate mass of coal of great thickness, 

 which is extensively worked. No traces of them have been observed higher 

 up the valley than Kranzach near Rattenberg; and all vestiges of them are 

 lost near the narrow gorge of Kufstein, although formations apparently of the 

 same age are largely developed beyond the gorge, and connect themselves 

 with the great tertiary system on the north flank of the chain. It is, however, 

 probable that the overlying beds were once much more extended than they 

 are now ; and notwithstanding the few fragments of them which remain, they 

 may formerly have occupied a considerable portion of the whole elliptical 

 basin in the valley of the Inn. 



They are not only distinguished by the vast quantity of good, compact 

 lignite which they contain, but also by an abundance of land shells, and by a 

 profusion of vegetable fossils mixed witli shells both fluviatile and marine. 

 The form of the country and the structure of the beds, at first sight led us 

 to consider that they were entirely of lacustrine origin. But the presence of 

 marine shells in many of the beds (one or two of which resemble fossils of 

 the older tertiary periods), compelled us to conclude, that an arm of the 



* Plate XXXVI. fig. 8. 

 VOL. III. SECOND SERIES. 3 B 



