1832.] On the Gypsum of the Himalaya. 289 



III. — On the Gypsum of the Himalaya. By Capt. P. T. Cautley, 



Ben. Arty. 



While there appears to be a general unwillingness on the part of 

 geologists to admit the gypsum of the Alps as a recent formation, the 

 leading authorities in that science are divided whether to consider it as 

 primitive, or to class it among the indefinite transition formations. 



M. Brochant has reviewed the gypsum formations of the Alps, and 

 given his opinion on their relative antiquity : we have also accounts of 

 other countries, betraying the same uncertainty with reference to the 

 point at question : and perhaps we may not be far wrong in attributing 

 many of the doubts in the classification of gypsum and other similar 

 minerals, to the very interpolation of the order Transition, an ar- 

 rangement convenient enough as offering a resting place for every va- 

 riety not stamped with the decided mark of primary or secondary, 

 but to the scientific inquirer a most deplorable bar to precision, a 

 term not inapplicable altogether to the science, as we may hope to 

 find it under a revised, well arranged, and permanent nomneclature. 



The gypsum of the Paris basin, that accompanying the red marie 

 of England, and that of other similar localities, have been acceded to 

 as secondary formations by all geologists ; while those found in the 

 higher mountain ranges of the globe have from their singular and gene- 

 rally ill-defined position, placed authors in doubts as to their classifica- 

 tion. M. Brochant argues, that from the similarity of appearance in 

 Gypsum rocks, he should be led to ascribe them all to the same aera ; 

 and from his own observation decides, that they all belong to the 

 transition series, with this difference, which he deems important, that 

 the ancient secondary gypsum of Bavaria, Saltzburg, &c. &c. reposes 

 on strata essentially posterior to the transition class ; an objection, as 

 De la Beche observes, nugatory from the frequent conjunction of the 

 primary and secondary strata, exemplified by the oolite of the Jura 

 resting on gneiss in the Rhine, &c. But although we find the superior 

 classes of the secondary rocks in conjunction with the higher classes of 

 the primary, the latter order is never found reposing on the newer 

 formations ; indeed the only example given of an occurrence of 

 this sort is by McCulloch, of gneiss on a secondary rock, which is 

 noticed in the preface to Conybeare's work, and exemplified by a 

 drawing, most satisfactorily explaining the deception. 



* The term secondary, as here used, includes what is generally called tertiary, 

 —Ed. 



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