Structure of the Austrian Alps, fyc. 93 



fibrous, and at its upper surface alternating with gray gypseous 

 marls. (6.) Thin beds of dark fetid limestone surmounted 

 by beds of gypsum lost under the alluvium of the hill. The 

 aggregate thickness of these beds is fifty or sixty feet, and 

 their dip is north. Near the same place is another quarry 

 exposing red and variegated gypseous marls, alternating with 

 beds of red sandstone perfectly like the new red sandstone of 

 England. 



On the whole, the formation we are describing is ill ex- 

 posed, the greater part of it being obscured by the accumula- 

 tions of alluvial matter near the foot of the great calcareous 

 precipices; and we have only pointed out the previous sections 

 for the purpose of conveying some notion, however imperfect, 

 of its internal structure. Its thickness is very considerable, but 

 its lower limit is very ill defined. Its upper portion seems to 

 pass into the Alpine limestone through the intervention of dark 

 calcareous shales with subordinate beds of fetid limestone. 



On the right bank of the Drave, south-east of Paternion, 

 the red sandstone is much concealed, but the order is as fol- 

 lows: (1.) Grauwacke; (2.) Red sandstone; (3.) Shale and 

 fetid limestone; (4.) Dolomite of the Erzberg. 



The great fault which brings up the red sandstone series 

 under the Schlossberg, on the left bank of the rivulet below 

 the village of Bleiberg in Carinthia, exposes the following 

 succession of phenomena*: (1.) Contorted and broken beds 

 of shale and bands of compact limestone. Some of the lime- 

 stone is fetid; many of the beds of shale are meagre and mica- 

 ceous, of a gray and blueish gray colour; others are red or 

 variegated, more argillaceous, and contain irregular and earthy, 

 nodular masses of gypsum. This system is traversed by one 

 of the adits to the lead-works, which intersects many beds of 

 stinkstone like those under the dolomites on the north side of 

 the Erzberg. 



(2.) Red sandstone alternating with red and variegated gyp- 

 seous marls, not to be distinguished from the most character- 

 istic beds of new red sandstone. This system rises from be- 

 neath the contorted shales, and in its prolongation abuts 

 against some highly inclined beds to be next enumerated. 



(3.) Highly inclined beds composed of coarse grauwacke, 

 passing here and there into a conglomerate with rounded peb- 

 bles of quartz and primary rocks. The cementing principle 

 is close-grained and micaceous, and so hard that the masses 

 are quarried for millstones, 



(4.) A second mass of red marl and sandstone overlying and 



* See Plate II. fig. 3. 



abutting 



