PERIPHERAL RANGES IN EUROPE 195 



SO the Strait of Ormuz appears to be a passage over a depressed mountain 

 range. 



West of the lower course of the Indus the Kirthar range runs directly 

 south, and then curves southwestward toward the sea at Cape Monze. It 

 appears to continue some distance to the southwest beneath the sea, for the 

 soundings show a deep trough extending back to the northeast along the 

 north side of the submarine line of the range. The position of this range 

 suggests a folded arc curving toward the west through the northern part 

 of the Arabian Sea, but remaining undeveloped. Its trend suggests a 

 continuation in the Ahkdar range of Arabia, which curves back toward 

 the north on the west side, but present knowledge indicates the latter 

 range to be older and to belong to the ancient Indo-African tableland. 

 These features invite further investigation. 



THE PERIPHERAL RANGES IN EUROPE 



The trend-lines of the Tertiary mountain ranges of Europe are much 

 more complicated than those of Asia. They show a tendency to a domi- 

 nance of east and west trends, although the Apennine and Dinaric ranges, 

 with northwest-to-southeast trends, form a marked exception, and a con- 

 siderable part of the Carpathian fold takes the same course. The most 

 remarkable forms, however, are the sharply bent arcs of short radius, the 

 Eoumanian arc, the arc of the western Alps, and the arc of the Betic 

 Cordillera at the western end of the Mediterranean. All of these present 

 sharply convex fronts toward the west. 



In discussing the trend-lines of the European ranges, however, Suess 

 departs somewhat from the methods and principles which he has used so 

 successfully in Asia, and his language in some passages seems to contra- 

 dict that of others. In Asia, Suess found the direction of overthrusts 

 in the peripheral belt to be invariably toward the south, thus agreeing 

 well with his conclusions on the direction of tangential thrust from the 

 southward convexities of the arcs, and the evident southward compres- 

 sion against India. But one can not be sure upon which kind of evidence 

 he relies the more, overthrusts or direction of arc bending. On the 

 whole, one is inclined to believe that he relies more upon the latter; yet, 

 when he passes over to Europe and discusses the ranges there, he finds 

 a confusion of trend-lines among which, although east-and-west lines 

 are dominant, others are prominent, the Carpathians and the Alps espe- 

 cially showing northward convexities. The three arcs sharply convex 

 to the west Suess attributes to a tangential thrust from the east. The 

 arcs of the Carpathians and the Alps are convex to the north, and from 

 /lis point of view indicate tangential thrusts in that direction. The arc 



