In the vicinity of Mont Blanc, 191 



of knowledge by other authors to his favourite portion of the chain, 

 from the days of de Saussure downwards ; and all those who have 

 contributed their notices among this multitude of observations have 

 been carefully and honourably quoted.' Among English geologists, he 

 cites Murchison, as having in company with M. Pillet discovered 

 true fossiliferous Upper Chalk at Thones, east of the Lake of Annecy ; 

 and he gives indeed a section published in the Quarterly Journal 

 of the Geological Society, ^ which our countryman dwelt upon, 

 as one of the several proofs to establish the generalisation, that 

 Chalk with characteristic fossils and wholly void of Nummulites 

 rested on a series of the Lower Cretaceous rocks, and was re- 

 gularly superposed by masses of Nummulitic Limestone ; and 

 followed by •' Macigno Alpin," or "Flyscli," which he also observed 

 in more eastern ranges of the chain, as well as in the Apennines. 



In parts of the region north of Mont Blanc the Secondary rocks have 

 been here and there developed (particularly at Mont Saleve), and M. 

 Favre disentangles their various members from the breaks and con- 

 tortions to which they have been subjected, and so assigns to each 

 the fossil remains by which they are recognised, that we feel we are 

 following a skilful pilot through a devious labyrinth. As regards 

 these Western Alps, no organic remains have been found beneath 

 the Lias except numerous plants of the palasozoic Carboniferous era. 

 For, although M. Favre applies the term of *' Trias" to a great thick- 

 ness of crystalline and sub-crystalline rocks which lie between 

 the Lias and the Carboniferous, these strata have not as yet afforded 

 any of those fossils which in the Eastern Alps so clearly characterize 

 the Trias with its numerous Muschelkelk remains. 



The English reader will find the divisions of the strata, from the 

 upper portion above the Oolitic series (" Oolite Corallienne"), de- 

 scribed under the Cretaceous divisions of Valangian, Neocomian, 

 Qrgonian, or Lower Greensand, their fossils being well defined and 

 figured by M. Loriol and the author. It has been long since ascer- 

 tained that these Cretaceous deposits, including those of Gosau, 

 which abound so greatly in the more eastern parts of the Alps, and 

 are particularly distinguished by large Nerineas, Tornatellse, the 

 Diceras, and shells of a Cerithium form, belong really to the Creta- 

 ceous grouj), though nearly forty years ago they were at first referred 

 to a supra-Cretaceous age,^ — an opinion, however, which was long ago 

 abandoned. In a word, we commend this work of M. Favre as entitled 

 to a place of honour in all scientific libraries, if only to show the vast 

 difficulties which have been overcome in bringing great masses of 



1 In proof of the assiduous labour with which M. Favre has ransacked every scrap 

 of writing respecting this Alpine region, it may be stated that, in his history of the 

 Carboniferous rocks, he refers, in one long chapter thereon, to eighty authorities who 

 have published on the subject ; and, of English geologists, he cites the names of 

 Bakewell, Buckland, Buckman, Bunbury, De la Beche, James Forbes, "W. Hamilton, 

 L. Horner, Lyell, Murchison, Playfair, &c. 



2 Vol. v., p. 186, In this work Sir R. Murchison expresses his deep obligations to 

 Canon Chamouset, of Chambery, as well as to M. Pillet, for the accurate knowledge 

 he obtained in company with them. 



3 See Sedgwick and Murchison, Trans. Geol. Soc. 2nd Series, vol. iii. p. 301. 



