204 THE RELATION OF CERTAIN BRECCIAS TO [May 1902, 
mountain-chain of more or less Alpine elevation. But practically 
all that was meant to be implied was, that in Permian times a chain 
or series of sharp ridges—probably disconnected—traversed the 
Midlands, on or about the line joining the present ridges of Charn- 
wood, Nuneaton, the Lickeys, and the Malverns. ‘The essential 
feature of these ridges was probably not so much their height as. 
their steepness, and the co-existence of a local physiography and 
climate bringing about the formation of angular screes or talus upon 
a fairly large scale, and the preservation thereof as a definite 
rock-formation. 
He was also very pleased to hear the Author dwell upon the vital 
importance of Dr. Blanford’s paper on the continental Persian 
deposits for the study of this breccia-question, for that paper had 
always been regarded by Midland geologists as affording by far the 
best suggestion of what were probably the physical and climatic 
conditions of the Midlands in the Permian Period. 
With regard to the difhiculty of accounting for the disappearance of 
some of the solid Midland ridges of Permian times, while their loose 
screes are preserved to us, it should be borne in mind that their relics 
suggest that the sequence within them was probably downward 
through hard Cambrian quartzites, through volcanic rocks of Uri- 
conian types, into more shaly rocks of Longmyndian aspect; and 
that, once the hard outer coating which afforded most of the 
materials to the breccias had been worn from off them, the softer 
beds would rapidly disappear. 
The Alpine breccias studied by the Author, and associated with 
the Flysch, are rather coastal than continental. They occur in regions 
eminent for crust-movements, and the possibility, still held by some, 
that overthrust-ranges with a core of hard rocks, and resting upon 
softer deposits, may have furnished angular fragments to the Flysch 
and the breccias, does not yet appear to be wholly excluded. 
Midland geologists, at any rate, had long been prepared for evidences 
of much local crust-movement in Britain during the formation of the 
Permian brockrams and breccias. 
Prof. Warrs pointed out that, in Charnwood Forest at least, the 
‘Mercian Highlands’ must have had steep slopes and considerable 
altitudes in Jurassic times. He referred to the view of Mr. Wick- 
ham King that landslips had borne a share in the formation of the 
Midland breccias, and he demonstrated that important landslips in 
the Alps frequently occurred along the crests of overfolds. Flims, 
Elm, and the Klénthal at the back of the Glarnisch, were examples 
in point. He considered that these examples indicated that something 
more than mere denudation was at work in producing the breccias, 
and that denudation was hastened by the continuance of overfolding 
movements. This would explain the coustané association of breccias. 
with mountain-forming epochs. 
Prot. Srecry remarked that, although some conglomerates contained 
marine fossils, it was probable that their materials, like those of 
breccias, for the most part acquired their forms upon land-surfaces. 
The paleontological history of these accumulations lent some support 
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