Yol. 50.] CRYSTALLINE SCHISTS IN THE LEPONTINE ALPS. 



295 



South of the high road the section at the top of the pass (set- 

 fig. 3) is clear enough, but to the north it is not so well exposed. 



Fig. 3. — Section at the top of the Furka Pass. 



1 = Micaceous gneiss. 



2 = Dark limestone and phyllites 



3 = Marble. 



4 = Dark phyllites, etc. 



5 = Kauchwacke. 



6 = Hospenthal schists. 



The rough slopes are steep, the ground is often masked by debris^ 

 and in one or two places on the western side is occupied by small 

 pools or mud. Commencing on the southern side of the ' col,' we 

 find that the crags, which also rise steeply in this direction, consist 

 of the ' Hospenthal schist/ and that, next to this rock, a little rauch- 

 wacke (apparently only a few feet thick) is exposed at the very 

 lowest point in the gap. From this to the high road the rock, 

 which may be traced past the hotel practically without a break, is 

 a black satiny slate or phyllite of the ordinary type, though perhaps 

 the brown sandy bands are less frequent than in some of the sections 

 already described. On the northern side of the road we find the 

 flaggy marble (2), 1 which can be traced for some distance westwards 

 with more or less interruption, and is cut again, I believe, by the 

 high road on this side of the summit." It is difficult to say how 

 far the grey limestone (3) and the second band of marble (4) can be 

 traced in this direction. There seems to be room for them, and on 

 the flatter part of the broken ground north of the high road I 

 thought that I identified both ; but the exposures are bad, and the 

 rocks are much crushed, so that it would be necessary to plot the 

 whole area on a large-scale map before one could be certain. There 

 is, however, no doubt that the steeper and more northerly part of the 



1 This and the next two numbers apply to the description on p. 294. The 

 flaggy marble is numbered 3 in the woodcut (fig. 3), and the others are not 

 distinguished. 



2 In 1893 a change for the worse in the weather prevented me from com- 

 pleting my observations on the western side of the pass, while in 1891 we had 

 ascended to the summit up the middle of the valley, viz. keeping to the south of 

 the highroad, and thus traversed Jurassic rocks. These were 'slaty dark lead- 

 coloured limestones, darkish phyllites, and rather brown sandy rocks,' bordered 

 in places on the south side by rauchwacke, beyond which rose the Hospenthal 

 schists. In the Jurassic group we found more than once the belemnites, dis- 

 torted by pressure, which have been so often described from the neighbourhood 

 of the Furka Pass. 



