MEBLTCOTT — ALPS AND niMALATAS. * 41 



M. F. V. Hauer *, in liis section of the eastern Alps, snys that the 

 first great upheayal, involving contortion, occnrrcd after the Lias ; 

 and he seems thronghout to attribute contortions and valley-forma- 

 tion to such agencies. 



In his paper on the Tertiary rocks, M. Lory f uniformly attributes 

 the contortions of the Molasse to the upheaval of the Alps. 



M. Ivanfmann's papcr:|; on the Subalpine Molasse is the most 

 detailed I have seen. He traces three axes of flexure throughout 

 his entire area — a synclinal between two anticlinals. The inner 

 anticlinal is a folded flexure ; and thus the flanking belt of hills, at 

 the base of the great lange, is sometimes parth' composed of inverted 

 strata as in the Beichlen : the great hills of this zone (the Rigi and 

 the Speer) are south of the inner anticlinal ; and therefore the strata 

 are in their normal order of superposition, as the contact-rocks 

 must "be throughout. M. Kaufmann, however, altogether avoids 

 the actual junction ; the inner rocks do not appear on any of the 

 figured sections. The historical sketch given by this author is 

 peculiar. A continental elevation is distinguished from that con- 

 fined within the mountain-range. During that elevation great ero- 

 sion of the Molasse area took place, leaving hills of Nagelfluhe in 

 their present approximate position. The lateral pressure, subse- 

 quently induced by the mountain -upheaval, produced the lines of 

 flexure along the lines of erosion, as lines of weakness. Although 

 M. Kaufmann thus seems to invert the usually accepted order, he 

 is in advance of most Alpine geologists in even recognizing the 

 intimate connexion between contortion, denudation, and valley-for- 

 mation. During the mountain-upheaval, it is considered that the 

 Molasse area must have suffered depression, to help to account for 

 the actual superposition at the contact. Like all the preceding- 

 writers, M. Kaufmann seems to think it necessary to account for 

 the present irregularities of the line of boundary as due to distur- 

 bance — although no one off'ers anyreason for assuming it to have been 

 at any time straight, unless in so far as such an assumption is im- 

 plied in the assumption of a great line of fissure. 



M. de Mortillet§, after describing many facts implying how 

 partial in extent and in influence great changes of level may be, 

 conforms fully to the current ojDinion. The last great rising of the 

 Alps is described as having taken place at the close of the Miocene 

 period ; this upheaval traced out the valleys as we see them, rock- 

 basins and all. It was the last violent movement. 



M. Favre || would seem to connect the origin of the Saleve moun- 

 tain with that of the main anticlinal in the Molasse. 



In M. Giimbel's large work on _the Bavarian Alps^, notwithstand- 

 ing the great labour expended, the stratigraphical question does 



^ Sitzungsberichte der k. Ak. Wien, 1857, vol. rsv. p. 253. 

 t Bull. Soc. Greol. France, 1857-58, vol. xv. p. 40, and vol. xvi. p. 823. 

 X Neue Denkschriften, Zurich, vol. xvii. 1860. 

 § Bull. Soc. Geol. France, vol. xix. p. 849 : 1861-02. 

 II Bull. Soc. Geol. France, vol xix. p. 928 : 1861-62. 



^ Geol. Bescbreibung des bayrischen Alpengebirges und seines Yorlandes. 

 Gotha, 1861. 



