Structure of the Austrian Alps, fyc. 97 



to the red sandstone. The calcareous beds described in the 

 preceding section are not therefore included under this term ; 

 which has undoubtedly led to some mistakes, having been ap- 

 plied to the zechstehi, to the oolitic series, and to true transition 

 rocks. It is not well that the same name should designate 

 formations so widely separated from each other; but limiting 

 the term Alpine limestone as we have done, we think that it 

 may be used with advantage, and that it can lead to no con- 

 fusion. This great deposit admits, as we have already stated, 

 of three natural subdivisions, which we proceed to notice in 

 order*. It is, however, entirely foreign to our purpose, to 

 give many details respecting a formation so well known, and so 

 often described by those who have possessed incomparably 

 better means than we had of studying the details of its mine- 

 ral structure : we shall therefore in a great measure confine 

 ourselves to a brief notice of some of the phenomena on our 

 lines of section. 



The first division, the older Alpine limestone, appears on 

 our transverse section in the dolomites of the Bleiberg and 

 the great escarpments of the Tannen Gebirge. We have be- 

 fore noticed the marls and thin beds of fetid limestone below 

 the village of Bleiberg, which seem to form a passage into 

 the superior limestone series. The thin-bedded, fetid lime- 

 stone also appears in great force near the northern base of 

 the Erzberg, overlying the red sandstone, and passing into 

 the superior dolomites. 



Near Werfen the order observed at the base of the calca- 

 reous zone was as follows : 



1. Thin, dark, bituminous beds with calcareous veins; some 

 of them fetid, and the masses shivering into angular fragments. 



2. Light-gray limestone, breaking into similar fragments. 



3. Dark, fetid beds, alternating with dark, micaceous shale 

 throwing out copious springs of water. 



4. Beds of limestone of compact texture, much traversed 

 by calcareous veins, and used for marble. The beds sepa- 

 rated into vertical masses by many great perpendicular clefts. 



5. Gray limestone and shale. 



6. Dark beds of limestone, traversed by contemporaneous 

 veins, alternating with dark shale, into which they pass in- 



* The subdivisions of the Alpine limestone here adopted, were we be- 

 lieve first given by M. de Lill, of Hallein, a gentleman whose investiga- 

 tions" have thrown great light on the natural history of the secondary for- 

 mations of the chain. The Geologists of the French school seem disposed 

 to reject the term Alpine limestone altogether, and to substitute in its 

 place the term Jura limestone. We are unwilling to exclude the term Al- 

 pine limestone from what we think its proper place, and are only anxious 

 to give it a consistent meaning, which may lead to no mistakes. 



N.S. Vol 8. No. 44. Aue. 1830. O sensibly, 



