2 
MISS  OGILYIE  OH  THE  WEHGEX  AHD 
[Feb.  1893, 
AYengen  and  St.  Cassian  Beds  in  the  valleys  of  Enneberg  and 
Ampezzo  in  Southern  Tyrol,  and  with  these  valleys  in  particular  the 
present  paper  deals. 
I  shall  ever  regard  it  as  a  peculiar  honour  that  Freiherr  von 
Richthofen,  whose  early  work,  4  Geognostiscbe  Beschreibung  der 
Umgegend  von  Predazzo,  St.  Cassian,  und  der  Seisser  Alpe,’1  still 
holds  the  highest  place  in  the  literature  of  the  Southern  Tyrol 
4  Dolomites,’  guided  me  in  my  first  attempt  in  Alpine  geology,  that  he 
himself  taught  me  the  chief  points  at  issue  concerning  the  district 
between  Schlern  and  Ampezzo,  and  gave  me,  in  a  short  space  of 
time,  a  far  clearer  insight  into  the  work  which  lay  before  me  than 
falls  to  the  lot  of  most  young  geologists. 
In  the  course  of  my  work  during  the  two  seasons  of  1891-92,  I 
have  been  led  to  extend  somewhat  my  primary  object,  and  to  in¬ 
clude  some  of  the  more  interesting  tectonic  aspects  of  the  whole 
group  of  Upper  Triassic  strata  in  the  4  Dolomite  Alps.’ 
My  most  grateful  thanks  are  due  to  Herr  Prof,  von  Zittel  for 
the  constant  kindness  he  has  shown  me,  and  for  his  advice  and 
encouragement  during  the  two  years  of  my  studies  in  Munich.  I 
am  indebted  to  Herr  Dr.  Schafer  for  frequent  help  and  suggestion 
in  carrying  out  the  work  of  this  paper,  and  also  to  Herr  Dr.  Roth- 
pletz  and  to  Freiherr  Dr.  von  AYohrmann  for  their  kind  response 
whenever  I  have  had  occasion  to  refer  to  them. 
The  Dolomite  region  of  Southern  Tyrol  has  long  been  one  of  the 
most  famous  in  geology.  Hot  only  is  it  pre-eminent  for  its  beautiful 
scenery,  but  in  this  district,  as  in  Northern  Tyrol  (the  Hallstadt 
district,  the  Bavarian  Alps,  and  the  Yorarlberg),  are  found  the  litho¬ 
logical  and  palaeontological  links  which  fill  up  the  great  hiatus 
between  the  Palaeozoic  and  the  Mesozoic  formations  in  Britain. 
In  Britain,  as  every  geologist  knows,  the  zoological  break  between 
the  Palaeozoic  and  the  Mesozoic  is  absolutely  complete.  Ho  species 
is  known  to  pass  from  the  Carboniferous  into  the  Jurassic  across 
the  great  hiatus  marked  by  our  sparsely  fossiliferous  Permian  and 
Triassic  beds.  Even  in  Central  Germany,  the  rich  limestone  of  the 
Muschelkalk  only  affords  a  few  transitional  genera  of  any  conse¬ 
quence,  and  these  by  no  means  fill  up  the  gap. 
But,  in  place  of  the  barren  Triassic  sandstones  of  our  own  land, 
masses  of  the  richest  limestone  rise  in  the  Tyrol,  and  our  non- 
fossiliferous  Eeuper  marls  are  represented  locally  in  that  province 
by  extremely  prolific  fossil-bearing  shales  and  limestones.  No  better 
example  of  such  fossiliferous  beds  in  the  Alpine  Trias  can  be  found 
than  the  group  which  forms  the  main  subject  of  this  paper.  Yet, 
while  the  fossils  contained  in  these  beds  are  of  remarkable  interest, 
and  are  well-known  to  all  geologists,  the  stratigraphy  of  that  district 
of  Southern  Tyrol  in  which  they  pre-eminently  occur  has  always 
been  a  matter  of  dispute  since  the  days  of  Leopold  von  Buch.  I 
may  here  indicate  shortly,  for  the  English  reader,  the  present 
state  of  opinion  regarding  the  systematic  position  of  these  strata. 
]  This  work  was  published  at  Gotha  in  1860;  a  preliminary  notice  appeared 
in  1858,  Jahrb.  d.  k.  k.  geol.  Eeichsanstalt,  p.  466. 
