1868.] CLARK SAXON SWITZERLAND. 555 



few places have overhung their base at least 900 feet — a state of 

 things which the mind can hardly conceive to have been possible. 

 There is, besides, the fatal objection to this theory, that it ignores 

 altogether the existence of the Jurassic conglomerate and fossils at 

 Hohnstein. 



The hypothesis of Gumprecht has been disproved by the fact of 

 fragments of granite, corresponding in every respect with the over- 

 lying mass, having been found imbedded in the conglomerate, thus 

 setting completely at rest the question as to the comparative ages of 

 the different rocks found at Hohnstein. 



It will therefore, perhaps, be readily admitted that the phenomena 

 observed along the line which separates the two formations indicate 

 beyond a doubt that an upward and lateral movement of the granite 

 all along that line* has taken place, in accordance with Cotta's 

 theory ; but so extensive a lateral movement of the granite against 

 and over a mass of stratified hard rock, of more than a thousand 

 feet thick, could hardly have taken place without bending or crush- 

 ing the strata to a considerable distance from the line of contact ; 

 while the fact is that, at Hohnstein and other places along the border 

 where the Quader is laid open to observation, the strata are found 

 to be but little disturbed, and are generally horizontal to within a 

 few feet of the granite. 



If, instead of supposing, with Cotta, the sandstone to have been 

 deposited and converted into rock before the disturbance to which 

 the elevation of the Lusatian granite is due, we admit that the 

 elevation of the latter rock commenced before, and continued during, 

 the deposition of the former, and that the induration of the sandy 

 deposit was not completed until the granite had attained to nearly its 

 present relative elevation and position, then all the greater difficulties 

 of the case disappear. 



WTiatever disturbance may have taken place in the mass of soft 

 sand in close proximity to the granite, the consequences of that dis- 

 turbance would not communicate themselves to any distance through 

 it, nor influence, save in a very slight degree, the regularity of 

 deposition of the upper strata ; for the lateral movement being ex- 

 ceedingly slow, the quantity of sand displaced during a given period 

 by that movement would be infinitely small, as compared with the 

 duration of that period. 



At the same time we should not be justified in asserting that no 

 alteration whatever would take place in the character and appear- 

 ance of the rock in consequence of this disturbance ; for the par- 

 ticles of sand displaced immediately by the intruding granite would 

 displace others, and so on to a certain distance, forcing them into 

 closer contact throughout that distance, and driving the clayey 

 matter from between the layers into the mass. The rock in these 

 localities would thus be rendered more compact and the lines of 

 stratification less evident. 



* This line marks one of the most extensive fissures, in one direction, known, 

 it being traceable from Oberen, near Meissen, to Grlatz, in Silesia, a distance, 

 nearly east and west, of more than 150 statute miles. 



