196 F. B. TAYLOR ORIGIN OF THE EARTH^S PLAN 



of the Apennines is slightly convex to the northeast, while the great 

 curve made by the Apennines and the Atlas of northern Africa is convex 

 to the southeast. The southern range of the Atlas is nearly a straight 

 line, and the Pyrenees, like the Caucasus, are substantially rectilinear. 



But, in addition to the northward bending which Suess finds in tlie 

 Carpathians and the Alps, he finds also that both of these ranges are 

 strongly overthrust toward the north, and that the older ranges also show 

 great overthrusts toward the north or northwest, as in Belgium, Scotland, 

 etcetera. In Scandinavia, however, the greatest of all the overthrusts is 

 toward the east-southeast. On these evidences Suess concludes that the 

 thrust forces in Europe acted mainly toward the north, or contrary to 

 their direction in Asia, and, what is much more important, his language 

 seems to convey the idea that the whole crustal movement in Europe was 

 toward the north. This conclusion he seems to rest on the few cases of 

 northward convexities with associated northward overthrusts. 



In some of his broad, generalized statements Suess' words seem to 

 imply clearly enough a general southward tangential movement in Eu- 

 rope the same as in Asia, as, where he says: ^'Tlie whole southern horde?- 

 of Eurasia advances in a series of great folds toward Indo-Africa" (I, 

 596). Again, in enumerating the continental units he mentions first, 

 ^'Indo-Africa, the greatest tableland of the earth, limited on its northern 

 border, from the point where the Wady Draa discharges into the Atlantic 

 Ocean to the mouth of the Brahmaputra, by the folds of Eurasia ad- 

 vancing to the south" (I, 600). But in discussing the relation of the 

 Alps to the mountains of Asia he says : 



"We observe as a remarkable phenomenon that from the Caucasus onwards 

 [westward] the tangential movement is not, as in the Asiatic chains, directed 

 to the south, but to the north, and that on the northern border of the Carpa- 

 thians all the indications appear of an extensive overthrusting on to two fore- 

 lands of completely different structure, the Russian Platform and the 

 Sudetes" (I, 500). 



In the next paragraph he observes that "it would seem as if in Asia 

 tangential movement or lateral compression had occurred almost exclu- 

 sively in the direction of the meridians of longitude, but that here [in 

 Europe] it had taken place also in the direction of the parallels of lati- 

 tude, and it is precisely in this region that the Carpathians are driven 

 out toward the north in so striking a fashion." 



In these last two passages, and in others that might be quoted, Suess 

 seems to abandon in part his broader method of interpretation for the 

 older method, which depends mainly upon the study of local structural 

 details, and in doing this he seems to lose sight of a very important dis- 



