Structure of the Austrian Alps, fyc. Ill 



elusion of Count Minister, that the iron-sand of Kressenberg 

 is a formation newer than the chalk*. 



With the same spirit of generalization, of which we have 

 been speaking, formations widely separated from each other, 

 in the Alpine and Carpathian chains, have been brought un- 

 der comparison ; sometimes by the help of mineralogical cha- 

 racters, almost unassisted by a single organic fossil. Nor do 

 we complain of this where no better evidence is to be had. On 

 the contrary, we owe the greatest obligations to MM. de Lill, 

 Boue, and other writers who have thrown much light on the 

 structure of parts of Europe which have been seldom visited. 

 At the same time, in all questions of doubt, we must take care 

 not to allow ourselves to be misled by mere words; and in 

 settling any difference of opinion, we must never apply to 

 one formation the properties of another in a distant region, 

 because it passes under the same name. For example ; in 

 arguing respecting the age of the overlying beds of Gosau, 

 we have no right to transport the reader over 150 miles of 

 Alpine limestone, and then to assert, that (at Grlinbach, 

 Piesting, &c.) the same deposit, as that at Gosau, contains Be- 

 lemnites and certain other secondary fossils. In the present 

 state of our information, and on questions of doubt, such an 

 argument is nothing better than a direct inversion of the rules 

 of induction. 



7. After the preceding remarks, we are prepared to enter 

 on the question of the age of the overlying deposit of Gosau. 

 Let it be borne in mind — that it is identical with formations 

 at the base and outskirts of the chain, and that it is equally 

 difficult to account for its present position among the serrated 

 Alpine peaks, whether it be considered secondary or tertiary — 

 that the chain has undergone great movements of elevation 

 within the tertiary period — that the older divisions of the ter- 

 tiary groups do exist in certain portions of the eastern Alps — 



* M. Boue appears to assert that Ammonites and Belemnites are found 

 in the Kressenberg deposit {Bulletin des Sciences, Juin 1829, p. 329.). On 

 the authority of the Berg-Meister, who has spent many years in excavating 

 this deposit, as well as from our examination of the spot, we doubt the cor- 

 rectness of this assertion ; and it would be to no purpose to tell us that these 

 fossils are found at Sonthofen. M. Boue" also states, generally, that the 

 fossils of the green-sand make a near approach to those of tertiary forma- 

 tions : and that some fossils of the oldest secondary rocks at Hall, Bleiberg, 

 andMaibel inCarinthia,have also a tertiary appearance {Bulletin desSciences; 

 and abstract of the proceedings of the Geological Society, July 1830). 

 We do not wish to oppose all parts of this statement; but we think that 

 at least the Bleiberg fossils offer no support to it. — If such suites of fossils, 

 as those described by Count Munster, really occur in the green-sand below 

 the chalk, there is an end of any zoological distinction between secondary 

 and tertiary formations. f See our last Number, p. 65. — Edit. 



that 



