Evolution (Biology); Glacial epoch; Human beings -- Origin; Human evolution
There are other freshwater formations with lignite, besides those on
the Lake of Zurich, as those of Wetzikon near the Pfaffikon Lake, of
Kaltbrunnen, of Buchberg, and that of Morschweil between St. Gall and
Rorschach, but none probably older than the Durnten beds. Like the
buried forest of Cromer they are all pre-glacial, yet they by no means
represent the older nor even the newer Pliocene period, but rather the
beginning of the Pleistocene. It is therefore true, as Professor Ramsay
remarks, that, as yet, no strata "of the age of the English Crag"
have been detected in any Alpine valley. In other words, there are no
freshwater formations yet known corresponding in date to the Pliocene
beds of the upper Val d'Arno, above Florence--a fact from which we may
infer (though with diffidence, as the inference is based on negative
evidence), that, although the great Alpine valleys were eroded in
Pliocene times, the lake-basins were, nevertheless, of Pleistocene
date--some of them formed before, others during, the glacial epoch.
Sixthly. In what manner then did the great lake-basins originate if they
were not hollowed out by ice? My answer is, they are all due to unequal
movements of upheaval and subsidence. We have already seen that the
buried forest of Cromer, which by its organic contents seems clearly to
be of the same age as the lignite of Durnten, was pre-glacial and that
it has undergone a great oscillation of level (about 500 feet in both
directions) since its origin, having first sunk to that extent below
the sea and then been raised up again to the sea-level. In the countless
Post-Miocene ages which preceded the glacial period there was ample time
for the slow erosion by water of all the principal hydrographical basins
of the Alps, and the sites of all the great lakes coincide, as Professor
Ramsay truly says, with these great lines of drainage. The lake-cavities
do not lie in synclinal troughs, following the strike and foldings of
the strata, but often, as the same geologist remarks, cross them at high
angles; nor are they due to rents or gaping fissures, although these,
with other accidents connected with the disturbing movements of the
Alps, may sometimes have determined originally the direction of the
valleys. The conformity of the lake-basins to the principal watercourses
is explicable if we assume them to have resulted from inequalities in
the upward and downward movements of the whole country in Pleistocene
times, after the valleys were eroded.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account