12 T. 8S. Hunt on Alpine Geology. 
north of Mont Blanc. 
by nearly all observers since the time of de Saussure, and cor- 
rectly represented in the sections published by Studer in 1851, 
by Lory in 1860.+ He supposes 
that the underlying crystalline rocks forced, by great lateral 
pressure, formed an elevated anticlinal arch, which, breaking 0D 
the crown, fr 
t , rom the excess of curvature, shows the lowest rocks” 
in the center of the rupture, flanked on either side by the over- 
lying strata. These, in their upper part, are subjected to a 
comparatively feeble lateral pressure, while the deeper portions 
oh forcibly compressed by the smaller folds on either side, from 
Wich results the fan-like or sheaf-like structure of the beds. The 
newer strata in the synclinals are by this process arranged 
troughs, and are more or less overlaid by the older rocks. Such a 
* Terrains liassique et rien, 17. 
t Lowy, Gnbetinea, receipe Dauphiné, p. 130 
however, Sismonda be correct 
in: placing them below rocks which are, according to Favre, 
true coal measures, these serpentines and steatites, with thell — 
accompanying schists and limestones, are, as we have already 
shown, in the same horizon with the crystalline schists to the 
