﻿98 PROP. E. W. SKEATS ON THE [Feb. 1905, 



Richthofen gave a complete account of the literature on the subject 

 which had appeared up to 1860. His views were amplified by the 

 work of Dr. E. von Mojsisovics and the officers of the Austrian 

 Geological Survey, and their results were published in 1879 in the 

 former's book. 1 C. W. von Giimbel, 2 Dr. R. Lepsius, 3 and others 

 opposed the coral-reef theory of the origin of the Dolomites. In 

 more recent years, Mrs. Ogilvie Gordon has paid much attention to 

 the stratigraphy and the tectonics of this area, and in a series of 

 papers 4 has considerably extended our knowledge of the geology of 

 the district. She has emphasized the objections to the coral-reef 

 hypothesis ; she regards the Schlern Dolomite as a deep-water marine 

 deposit, and seeks to explain the reef-like character of the dolomite- 

 mountains as a result of complicated earth-movements in Tertiary 

 times. Among the latest publications on this district is a handbook 

 of the International Geological Congress, published in 1903, by Prof. 

 C. Diener and Dr. G. von Arthaber, which embodies the results of 

 the most recent work in the area of which it treats, and includes a 

 list of the most recent papers on the subject. In May 1904, the 

 important work ' Bau & Bild von OEsterreich ' was published, and 

 Prof. Diener was responsible for that part of it which deals with 

 the Dolomites of Southern Tyrol. 



While most geologists are now in agreement upon the general 

 stratigraphical succession of the deposits in the Dolomites, it will 

 be seen that antagonistic views are held as to the mode of formation 

 of the rock-masses which now constitute the dolomite-mountains. 

 Those who uphold the coral-reef theory point to : — 



(1) The great resemblance' of the isolated dolomite-masses to 



upraised reefs, and the fact that corals are occasionally 

 found preserved in them. 



(2) Their ' heteropic ' character, masses of dolomite thousands of 



feet thick representing in age, and tailing off laterally into, 

 marly deposits of much less thickness. 



(3) ' Reef-blocks ' found on the slopes of the Dolomites, and 



apparently intercalated among the sedimentary deposits 

 outside them. 



(4) The imbedded character of the rocks and their great thickness. 



(5) The fact that the rocks, like recent reefs, are often 



dolomitized. 



1 ' Die Doloruit-Eiffe von Siid-Tirol & Venetien Vienna, 1879. 



2 ' Das Mendel- u. Schlern-Gebirge ' Sitzungsber. d. niath.-phys. Olasse d. k. 

 bayeriscb. Akad. cl. Wissensch. vol. iii (1873) p. 14. 



3 « Das Westlicbe Siid-Tirol ' Berlin, 1878, 4to. 



4 ' Contributions to the Geology of the ^engen & St. Cassian Strata in 

 Southern Tyrol' Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc. "vol. xlix (1893) p. 1; 'Coral in 

 the Dolomites of South Tyrol ' Geol. Mag. 1894, pp. 1 & 49 ; ' The Torsion- 

 Structure of the Dolomites' Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc. vol. lv (1899) p. 560; 

 'Monzoni & Upper Fassa ' Geol. Mag. 1902, pp. 309 & 384; and 'The 

 Geological Structure of Monzoni & Fassa ' Trans. Edin. Geol. Soc. vol. viii 

 (1902-1903) special part. 



