42 PK'OCEEDrN'GS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



not seem to be placed upon a better footing. The diagram section 

 figured on pp: 679 and 757 is irreconcileable witli itself; the lowest 

 beds of the series, next the main junction, as numbered and described, 

 are shown at the top of what must be (according to the lines of 

 stratification) a normal ascending section. There are other similar 

 discrepancies in the same section. The evidence given (p. 69-i) that 

 the lowest beds do occur next the junction is far from convincing. 

 There is much variety shown in the actual sections taken at different 

 points of the junction, inversion being by no means the rule. The 

 irregularities which occur in the line of boundary, generally near a 

 main valley, are explained in the same arbitrary manner as by M. 

 Kaufmann and others — by the horizontal displacement and projec- 

 tion of the older rocks at these points of transverse fracture. The 

 sequence of formations is represented to have gone on regularly up 

 to the Cretaceous period, the younger Cretaceous rocks resting 

 transversely upon all. The Nummulitic deposits stretched, up fiords, 

 deep into the Alps, the coal-beds of Haring, in the Inn-Thai, 

 showing that the limestone Alps were then as high as now. A 

 little further rise of the coast defined the basin of the Molasse. 

 The warm character of the jN'eogene fiora precludes the conclusion 

 that the Alps (? the central Alps) were as high as now. Hence this 

 altitude must have been attained since : as collateral evidence of this 

 "■ Katastrophe " the author points to the contortion of the IN'eogene 

 strata. The similar preceding alterations of level can only be 

 looked upon as precursors of this " Haupthebung." It is remarked 

 that this period corresponds with that of great volcanic eruptions in 

 other regions. The state of the Alps during the llolasse period is 

 compared (p. 870) to that of the present Jura and Swartzwald ; then 

 came the " Hauptkatastrophe." Erosion and disintegration after- 

 wards completed the present configuration. It would seem, however, 

 that considerable depression can occur without any remarkable 

 stratigraphical results, the inundations which produced the Loess, 

 M. Giimbel supposes to have been caused by sudden sinking of the 

 snow- clad mountains. Were not M. Giimbel's history full of 

 anomalies, one might suppose that the events just indicated can 

 scarcely have appeared to the author so violent as the language and, 

 indeed, the alleged facts seem to requii-e ; for he makes the excellent 

 suggestion (p. 854) that some shelves of debris, now found in the 

 inner Alps separated from the present watercourses, may belong to 

 the Molasse period. The fan-structure of the central masses is 

 accounted for by the protrusion of the mountain-core. The pre- 

 vailing inward dip in all the flinging mountains is attributed (p. 855) 

 to the tendency of the strata to range themselves at right angles to 

 the upward and outward pressure — an explanation which seems to me 

 to lead to a result the very opposite of that required. To render 

 possible the contortion in the Tertiary zone, M. Giimbel considers it 

 necessary to suppose the resistance of a now departed mountain- 

 ridge somewhere in the Bavarian plains. 

 Professor Ramsay, in his paper on the glacial origin of lakes*, 

 * Quart. Journ. Greol. Soc. Lend. 1862, vol. xviii. p. 185. 



