550 PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAi SOCIETY. [JunC 17, 



3. In the eastern portion the dip is about north-west, and the 

 angle the same as in the others. 



It win thus be seen that a semicircle to the south of the line 

 through Pirna and the Winterberg, having its centre at Schandau, 

 and a radius equal to the distance between that town and Pirna, 

 would enclose in a general manner the whole region of inclined 

 strata ; and the mean directions of dip above particularized appear 

 to be pretty nearly at right angles to the general border-line in the 

 three divisions. 



It will be seen, also, that the elevation of the isolated hills and 

 rocks above the general level of the plateau is not due to any 

 inclination of the strata ; nor can it be owing to any fracture or 

 dislocation ; for in the Elbe valley, which skirts the feet of several 

 of these eminences, and where the strata have been laid bare either 

 by natural causes or by quarrying, there does not exist a fault even 

 to the extent of a few inches. This fact is well exemplified in the 

 quarries under the Lilienstein on the right bank of the river, and 

 also in the cliffs which form the side of the Elbe valley between the 

 villages of Schmitka and Herrnskretschen, where it cuts across the 

 foot of the Larger Winterberg in a curve from north-west to 

 south-east. 



The general appearance of these rocky heights would seem to in- 

 dicate their having been subjected to the continued action of a sea 

 whose relative level has not varied more than a few feet through a 

 long succession of ages subsequent to the Cretaceous period, during 

 which time the whole region must have been quite, or nearly quite, 

 level ; for in whatever part they may be seen rising above the sur- 

 face of the plateau, and from whatever dii'ection they may be viewed, 

 they offer a remarkable pecuharity of form, and, so far as regards 

 the general profile, an equally remarkable resemblance one to another. 



They may be best described as irregularly prismatic blocks, of va- 

 rious sections and diameters, about 180 feet high, set upon truncated 

 pyramidal bases of corresponding sections, and 285 in height, or 

 thereabout, the whole thus reaching to an altitude of some 470 feet 

 above the plateau at their feet, and offering outlines similar to those 

 which some of the small islands in the Mediterranean might be ex- 

 pected to represent, were the surface of that sea to be rapidly lowered 

 285 feet. 



That this peculiarity of form is a consequence of the action of the 

 waves and currents of a sea whose level must have coincided for ages 

 with the top of the sloping bases just mentioned, appears to be evident, 

 ■ — first, from the fact that these bases do not consist of mere masses of 

 loose blocks and detritus, which would have been the case had they 

 owed their origin to the falling away of the sides of the rocks on to 

 di^y ground, but of solid and continuous strata, corresponding in every 

 respect with the rest of the formation, as may be seen at the foot of 

 the Lilienstein and of the Konigstein ; and, secondly, from the exis- 

 tence of caverns in the cliffs which form the sides of these eminences, 

 e\idently hoUowed by the sea, being found in different parts at 

 nearly the same relative level as regards the pyramidal basis of th& 



