LINE OF THE FAULT SCARP 215 



passage of water from the upper ravine, to emerge in Fontana Varico, 

 near the base of the scarp. 



The village of Morolo is situated on a sloping limestone platform that 

 seems to be the result of the confluence of two rock fans just beneath a 

 narrow buttress that separates their upper portions. An old castle 

 stands on the front ledges of this buttress. The fault scarp seems to 

 pass just east of the village, but it is not so strong here as farther north- 

 west, and it is somewhat concealed by the large trees of old olive 

 orchards. Southeast of the village, across the ravine by which the 

 highway winds up in a roundabout course from the floodplain of the 

 Sacco, the next succeeding spurs of the mountain front descend to 

 the piedmont slope in long, unbroken catenary curves, thus proving 

 that the recent dislocation ceases near Morolo. Near the other end 

 of the fault scarp, Scurgola is built on a limestone promontory that 

 advances in front of the cliff line and rises in picturesque form over the 

 piedmont slope, thus implying that the boundary between the older and 

 younger formations is here not so closely coincident with the line sep- 

 arating the mountain front and piedmont slope as it is on the stretch 

 between the two villages ; but this matter needs much more study than 

 I was able to give it. Just back of Scurgola the line of dislocation is 

 indicated by a depression across a limestone spur, a form that is singu- 

 larly inappropriate, as the product of normal degradation is a mass of 

 nearly horizontal strata, but perfectly appropriate to degradation along 

 the path of a fracture. The mountain front further to the northwest 

 was hidden by this spur, so that I am unable to say anything of the 

 extension of the scarp in that direction, except that, as looked for from 

 the railway, the scarp, if occurring there at all, was certainly less con- 

 spicuous than between Scurgola and Morolo. 



Fresh fault scarps along the base of mountain ranges are so rare among 

 topographic forms that fuller study of this small example is to be de- 

 sired. At the time of my two visits trains leaving Rome and returning 

 were so arranged as to give only about six hours on the ground, and this 

 did not suffice for more than a hurried walk along the scarp and a climb 

 to some of the rock fans. 



The villages are primitive, picturesque in the distance, very unat- 

 tractive on closer inspection, and without accommodations for travelers. 

 The villagers were as amiable in replying to my questions as they were 

 inquisitive over the unusual sight of a stranger. Visitors who do not 

 find the very simplest diet sufficient should carry lunch with them. 

 The narrow road between the villages along the upper part of the pied- 

 mont slope is impassable to wheeled vehicles, its surface being often 



XXXI— Bull. Geol. Soc. Am., Vol. 11, 1899 



