1868.] CLARK SAXON SWITZERLAND. 551 



rocks above mentioned, but at absolute altitudes corresponding with 

 their positions on the plateau. 



According to this hypothesis, this part of the earth's crust must 

 have undergone a continuous and gradual upheaval subsequent to 

 the deposition of the Quader, until it reached an altitude of about 

 1420 feet below its present mean level ; and after standing at this 

 point for a long time, another, and probably the last, upheaval 

 commenced ; and this has lifted the south-east end of the plateau 

 about 2020 feet, and the north-west 830 feet higher than they 

 stood during the period of quiet which preceded this last upward 

 movement. 



Section illiistrating the last upheaval of the Plateau of 

 Saxon Switzerland. 



N.W. S.E. 



Biirenstein. Schneeberg. 



Thus in the annexed section, a would represent the relative levels 

 of sea and land during the period in which the upper parts of the 

 rocks received their present forms, and b the relative levels at the 

 present day, of the north-west and south-east extremities of the 

 plateau, the space between the two being the amount of upheaval. 



All along the southern border-line, from Tyssa to beyond Tetsehen, 

 a distance of about eight geographical miles, but more especially to- 

 wards its eastern end, we meet with unmistakeable evidences of a 

 sudden break off and fall of that portion which must at some period 

 have existed to the south of this line. The sandstone rises here 

 some hundreds of feet above the level of the country, which borders 

 it immediately to the south in a succession of precipitous shelves, 

 with slopes of debris at their base. In these shelves the strata dip 

 to the south-east, a direction directly opposite to that of the incli- 

 nation of those lying to the north of the line of fracture. The angle 

 towards the western end of the line is about 5°; a mile or two fur- 

 ther to the east it increases to from 10° to 20° ; and between Bunan- 

 berg and Tetsehen we meet cliffs whose strata have a dip of from 25° 

 to 30°, all falling in the same direction, towards the basaltic regions 

 of Bohemia. The Schaferwand, an enormous rock on the left bank 

 of the Elbe opposite Tetsehen, is a good specimen of the whole line : 

 this rock, through which a railway- tunnel is driven, is about 280 

 feet high above the valley, and stands separated from the main re- 

 gion of sandstone to the north by a deep ravine. The strata, which 

 are well seen on its eastern face, dip to the south-east at an angle 

 of from 25° to 30°, 



It would thus appear that the whole of that part of the Quader 

 formation which at the time of its deposition reached beyond this 

 point to the southward, must have been separated from the northern 

 portion by an enormous fracture of the earth's crust, subsequently 



