CARPATHIAN AND ALPINE KLIPPEN 13 



Stache 1 however explains the mode of formation of the Carpathian 

 Klippen in a very different manner. He considers them to be the 

 fragments of a geologically older chain of mountains which, in 

 latter geological periods, were unconformably overlaid by younger 

 sediments, which are different from this older (infra-cretaceous) 

 mountain range, both by their stratigraphical and structural con- 

 ditions. The results of the recent detailed surveys of Uhlig 2 in the 

 region north of the Tatra (Piennine chain) are in favour of Stache's 

 view. According to Uhlig the Piennine klippen, which are composed 

 of triassic, Jurassic and neocomain rocks, correspond to fragments of 

 an older mountain chain, with a structure independent of the ad- 

 joining belt of sandstones, and are distinguished by the presence of 

 littoral deposits of locally considerable thickness in their immediate 

 vicinity. 



In the western Alps chains of Klippen play likewise an important 

 part in the structure of their north-western sedimentary belt. Among 

 the Swiss geologists two theories prevail regarding the explanation 

 of their mode of formation. These theories closely resemble those 

 which* have been proposed by Neumayr and Stache for the explana- 

 tion of the Carpathian klippen, and are similarly contradictory. One 

 of them, advanced by Studer and Mosch, tries to explain the 

 phenomena in question by the assumption of outcrops of crushed 

 anticlinals. The other (Renevier 3 ; prefers the assumption of a fold- 

 ing process, anterior to the deposition of the younger sandstones 

 which have been deposited on the eroded surface of the fragments of 

 an older mountain range. 



Recently, however, a third hypothesis has been advanced by 

 Bertrand and has been developed more fully by Maillard, Schardt, 



1 G. Stache — Die Geologischen Verhaltnisse der Umgebung von Unghvar in Ungarn, 

 Jahrb. Kk Geol. Reichs-Anst., XXI. 1871, 405. 



2 V. Uhlig. — Ergebnisse geologischer Aufnahmen in den vvestgalizischen Karpathen, 2. 



Theil, Jahrb. Kk. Geol. Reichs-Anst. 1S90, XL, pp. 559-824. 

 F. Renevier, Materiaux pour la carte g^ologique de la Suisse, livraison XVI, Berne, 

 1840, pp. H2, 128, 133, 189, 457- 



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