SUESS BKEIfNEH EAILWAY. 25 



Jurassic basin of France and England, while it bears but little 

 analogy with the Brown Jura of Germany, and totally differs from 

 the Alpine Jurassic deposits, of which a representative exists at a 

 short distance, south of the low region on the banks of the Vistula. 



[Count M.] 



Desceiption of a Section of the Brenner Railway, from Botzen 



on the South to Innsbruck on the North. By Prof. E. Suess. 

 [Proc. Imp. Geol. Instit. Vienna, June 4, 1867.] 

 The Imperial Southern Railway Company has presented to the 

 Imperial Geological Institute a geological section of the route from 

 Botzen to Innsbruck, worked out under the direction of the In- 

 spector of Constructions (Mr. Thommen), together with a collection 

 of illustrative specimens. This section is the more instructive, as 

 the line, with the exception of two comparatively sHght deviations 

 north and south of the Brenner, runs straight from south to north at 

 right angles to the general strike of the central Alpine chain. 



It begins with reefs of quartziferous porphyry, showing many steep 

 planes of cleavage, so as to assume locally (as near Trent) a schistose 

 appearance, and overlying a dark- purple, thick-bedded, somewhat 

 tuff-hke rock, possibly belonging to the Verrucano group. 



On the right slope of the valley near St. Verena, compact bright- 

 grey argillaceous slate with seams of quartz (strike S.W., dip about 

 60° S.E.) is seen cropping out from beneath the dark-red rock. 

 Near CoUmanus the folded argillaceous slate is overlain by the 

 dark-red rock, and this by the porphyry, with hues of cleavage 

 striking JST.N.W. and dipping 60-70° S.W. Above the porphyry 

 appear the dolomitic peaks of the Schlern. Two layers of diorite im- 

 bedded in the argillaceous slate are seen between Klausen and 

 Brixen. The right moraine of the ancient Eisack glacier advances 

 as far as the junction between the railroad and the postroad ; and 

 the workings have laid bare, beneath the detritus of the moraine, 

 the polished and rounded surfaces of the light- coloured granite 

 constituting the mountain-mass between the point of junction and 

 Ober-Mauls. Near this place appear contorted, dark-grey, lustrous, 

 argillaceous slates, striking from east to west across the valley with 

 a very steep northern dip. Light-grey highly metamorphosed lime- 

 stone, divided into thin layers by nearly vertical joints, is seen east 

 of Mauls. Many traces of a splintery green talcose rock, and 

 blocks of serpentine and hornblende, ai:)pear along the interior or 

 northern limit of the limestones. The fine terminal moraine above 

 the church of Mauls is decidedly of less remote date than the large 

 Eisack moraine near Sterzing. Two terraces of detritus, one above 

 the other, run through the bottom of the valley, the cuts into the 

 valley above AVeiten stein having exposed irregular accumulations of 

 blocks resting on stratified sand and gravels. 



The next rock marked on the section is mica- schist, with quartz 

 in regular stripes (strike E. to W., dip 60° N.). Its dip becomes 

 vertical in the reef on which the castle of Sprechenstein is built. 

 This reef strikes east to west across the valley, ending westward, close 

 to the opposite slope, in the steep cliff of the Reisenstein Castle ; and 



