THE 



PHILOSOPHICAL MAGAZINE 



AND 



ANNALS OF PHILOSOPHY. 



[NEW SERIES.] 

 AUGUST 1830. 



XIV. A Sketch of the Structure of the Austrian Alps, 8>c. 8>c. 

 By the Rev. A. Sedgwick, Woodwardian Professor, Fellow of 

 Trinity College Cambridge, President of the GeologicalSociety, 

 F.R.S. fyc. ; and Roderick I. Murchison, Esq. Sec. G.S. 

 F.R.S. F.L.S. $c* 



[With a Plate.] 



§ I. Introduction. 



\\TE believe that several years have elapsed since any ac- 

 * * count of the structure of the Alps has proceeded from 

 the pen of an English geologist. A paper by Professor Buck- 

 land, published in the Annals of Philosophy of 1821, threw a 

 new and unexpected light on the geological relations of the 

 whole chain ; showing, by many striking details, the analogy 

 between some of its formations and a part of the English 

 series; and proving that the great northern and southern cal- 

 careous zones belong exclusively to the secondary period. 

 About the same time Mr. Bakewell was employed in making 

 a series of observations on different parts of the Alps, which 

 led him to similar conclusions f . Of the many excellent me- 

 moirs published on the same subject by the geologists of the 

 Continent, we are not now called upon to speak. 



The elevation of the Alps during the tertiary period, first 

 asserted by Dr. Boue, has been confirmed, with innumer- 

 able details, by the successful labours of MM. de Buch and 

 Elie de Beaumont, and is now generally admitted. A large 

 series of strata on the southern flank of the chain, once re- 

 garded as primitive and afterwards elevated to the transition 



* Read before the Geological Society, May 21, 1830 ; and communicated 

 by the Authors. 



f See " Travels in the Tarentaise." 2 vols. 1823. 



N. S. Vol. 8. No. 44. Aug. 1830. M class, 



