MEDLICOTT ALPS AND HIMALAYAS. 39 



figured section makes them apparently in parallel superposition, each 

 being in its normal order. In another paper* M. 8tuder accounts 

 for the great accumulation of the Molasse by subsidence along a 

 fissure at the base of the Secondary mountains. 



In his well-known paper on the structure of the Alpsf, Sir E,. I, 

 Murchison adopts the most extreme views regarding the interpreta- 

 tion of the rock- disturbances. The great masses of subalpine Nagel- 

 fluhe in the Rigi and the Speer arc not taken to be inverted (although 

 MM. Studer and Escher de la Linth were the author's companions 

 in these regions), but the junction of the Molasse with the moun- 

 tains is spoken of as an enormous fault, whereby the topmost Nagelfluhe 

 is brought into contact with low rocks among the older formations J. 

 The elevation and dislocation of the Molasse is described as demon- 

 strably sudden, and as proving that the crust of the earth was then 

 affected by forces infinitely greater than now. There is no attempt 

 to specify the nature of the disturbing force ; it is not even referred 

 to the elevation of the Alps ; but such a subsequent upthrow of the 

 older rocks is almost necessarily implied in the word " fault," as 

 applied to the junction pf the Molasse with the mountains. 



M. Elitimeyer§ gives an account of the intricate section at Eal- 

 ligen. The figured section seems quite impossible in its details ; but 

 it exhibits some interesting facts, the abrupt appearance of much 

 older strata at the base of the Cretaceous rocks near the junction, 

 and the occurrence of a narrow band of crushed lower Molasse 

 against which the Kagelfluhe abuts at a moderate inclination. 



M. Lory i|, in his sections of the range of the Grande Chartreuse, 

 shows a fact of importance. In some of the great flexures (Yallee 

 de Proveysieux) the Molasse is represented as so parallel to the 

 Cretaceous strata on which it immediately rests, that these must 

 have been approximately horizontal at the time of deposition of the 

 former. Sections of other authors in the same region (close to Annecy) 

 give a very diflferent relation. 



In amemoir on the I^orthYorarlberg %, Escher de la Linth expresses 

 his views upon the general sequence of geological events in the Alps. 

 The ISTagelfluhe is described as dominating along the zone next the 

 Alps, and as being there equivalent to finer deposits more to the 

 north. For several miles to the north of the boundary with the 

 Plysch, the underlie of the rocks is south-easterly ; but in this zone 

 there are several repetitions of the strata by folded flexures. The 

 figured section (No. 16) is scarcely consistent with the text; at the 

 junction, the critical point of all, there is no saying whether the 

 Nagelfluhe is a top or a bottom band, or what its true relation to the 



* Neues Jahrbuch, 1850, p. 221. 



t Quart. Joarn. Greol. Soc. Loncl. 1848, vol. v. p. 157. 



X The use of the word inverted, in the paper quoted, is confusing : being 

 Bouietimes applied, in its usual English acceptation, to strata turned upside 

 down, it is more frequently used in the more arbitrary sense of dipping in a 

 wrong direction, being apparently put for the German " wider-sinnig " 



§ Neue Denkschriften, Ziirich, vol. vii. 



II BuU. Soc. Geol. France, vol. ix. 1851-52, p. 226. 



^ Neue Denkschriften, Ziirich, 1853, vol. xiii. 



