372 PLTJVIO-GLACTAL DEPOSITS IN SWITZERLAND. [Aug. 1 895. 



Since then I have examined several other deposits, notahly that on 

 the summit of the Gebensdorfer Horn (5, fig. 1, p. 369), about 4 miles 

 west of Baden, near Turgi, the point of confluence of the rivers 

 Aare, Reuss, and Limmat ; and an extensive bank about 2 miles 

 in length in the Glatt Valley east of Zurich, between Uster and 

 Wetzikon (6, fig. 1). All these deposits are characterized by 

 practically the same features and composition : that is, they show 

 occasional stratification ; the pebbles in the upper portions are, on 

 the whole, better rounded than in the lower portions, where they 

 are often striated; and the deposits generally pass into sand, and, in 

 some cases, into moraine. The Uetliberg, and in part also the 

 Baden deposit, rest on moraine, while the Gebensdorf and Glatt 

 Valley deposits rest directly on Molasse, the last-named being over- 

 lain by moraine. The Uetliberg deposit was formerly regarded as 

 diluvial but pre-Glacial, as distinguished from the well-known 

 Miocene Nagelfluh of the Molasse formation ; and even after it had 

 been established that it rested on moraine, it was considered a 

 purely local deposit formed by a temporary stream wedged in 

 between two glaciers. But the three other deposits west and north 

 of the Uetliberg to which I have referred, as well as similar deposits 

 in other parts of Northern Switzerland, lead to the conclusion that 

 they are part of the same complex of plateau-gravel, more or less 

 coinciding with the terminal moraine of the first glaciation. All 

 the deposits I have mentioned are from 100 to 200 feet in depth, 

 and have the same characteristic cliff-like appearance. The longitu- 

 dinal section (fig. 4, p. 373) of the Uetliberg, Baden, and Gebensdorf 

 deposits shows that they all lie in the same line, the fall being 

 about 1000 feet in 20 miles or 1 in 100. In the transverse 

 section (fig. 5), from the Uetliberg range to the Glatt Valley, in 

 which are also marked the glacial deposits of the three successive 

 glaciations, the Uetliberg and Glatt Valley Nagelfluh appears not 

 only at both extremities, but also in the Zurich lake- valley, fully 

 1000 feet below the summit of the Uetliberg, a fact which attests 

 the great depth of the original complex, and the powerful erosive 

 action which followed its deposition. 1 As is known, the qualification 

 ' locherige ' or ' cavernous ' refers to the hollows formed by the 

 limestone-pebbles leached out by percolating water, the carbonate 

 of lime being precipitated and constituting a cement composed of 

 layers of calcareous film. 



2. Lignite-deposits. (Figs. 1 and 6.) The interglacial lignite- 

 deposits of Diirnten, Wetzikon, and Uznach, near the upper end of 

 the Lake of Zurich, and those of Moerschwil, between the town of 

 St. Gall and the Lake of Constance, were first mentioned, as is well 

 known, by Oswald Heer, as early as 1865, 2 and even in the most 

 recent text-books his description is still reproduced. But these 



1 [The same phenomenon is observable at Baden, where I have (since this 

 paper was read) found a cliff \ mile in length and 50 feet in depth, bordering 

 the left bank of the river Limmat, at 364 metres above sea-level, or about 

 400 feet lower than the Devil's Cave deposit.— May, 1895.] 



2 ' Urwelt der Schweiz,' Zurich, 1865. 



