Popular Science Monthly/Volume 33/June 1888/The Geological Tourist in Europe
| THE GEOLOGICAL TOURIST IN EUROPE. |
By ALFRED C. LANE.
NINETY thousand Americans go abroad every summer. Among this army there must be many readers of this magazine, who are interested not only in art but in science; who find time to wonder, as they toil up to the top of Cologne Cathedral, what the stone is that sustains so mighty a mass, and whence come the crystals that now and again flash from the walls; who, as their eye roams over the vast expanse seen from above, let their imagination roam into the past when the Rhine had not yet won from the sea the provinces over which it now meanders. The artist finds guide-books crammed with catalogues of museums containing works of man and critical notices of the same, and man's battle-fields and burial-places are noted. Yet the collections of natural wonders are so curtly mentioned as to be easily overlooked, while the hidden forces producing the landscape that the artist depicts, the battle-fields of Nature, and the burial-places of conquered and conqueror alike in the struggle for existence, are rarely noticed.
The proportion of scientific men that go abroad is not small. How much greater the number of amateurs! How naturally do college students pass from the attached life of lecture-room and laboratory, floating off into the free life of travel! Where better can they go than to Europe, where they can learn the languages, the keys to the various chambers of scientific knowledge, and where roads and inns are so good and abundant? Although Europe is not the pattern of the world, yet most of our geological theories have been founded on European facts, and it is easier to see where a theory does not apply after seeing where it does.
Notes of some of the more satisfactory of my excursions, arranged more or less continuously, may not be useless, therefore, especially if accompanied with a few references. I know that three years ago I would have given five dollars for such an article. Of course, my sketch must follow the line of my studies. Another would doubtless wish to give Kew Gardens, the Jardin des Plantes, and the zoölogical station at Naples more place; but if the imperfections of this article should cause some one else to satisfy the crying need of a set of scientific guides, I would be content. Even if it only leads some summer wanderer to buy a geological map or two, and see not only with the eyes but with the understanding also, it will have had reason for being.
Suppose we have escaped the illustrations of the floating-ice theory off Newfoundland, and passed across that hackneyed specimen of an ocean-current, the Gulf Stream, and are about to follow the course of the satchel-guide or some such book through Europe, with limited time.
We land first on the Emerald Isle (13).[1] Being a glaciated country, the casual observer will not see so much of the great basin of subcarboniferous limestone which the island is, but the bogs due to irregular deposition of drift are a characteristic feature, and we may see the drumlin—a word recently borrowed to denote those smoothly rounded hills of compact bowlder clay, formerly called lenticular, so common about Boston. We may also see the Giant's Causeway and Fingal's Cave, illustrations of basaltic jointing. I have from Portrush, not far off, a tephrite obtained by Prof. Carvill-Lewis.
Crossing over the channel, we will not stop to examine the beds of Anglesea, interesting as they are, unless we have plenty of time; yet, if one has it, and is interested in metamorphic rocks, a study of the ground, in connection with past literature, may help his understanding of that which is to come. If not provided with maps, etc., we had better go at once to London and provide ourselves at Stanford's. While in London we must not fail to visit the Museum of Practical Geology in Jermyn Street, which issues a number of catalogues of permanent value (33), and a geological guide to London, and contains models and collections of all kinds. Every one will admire the polished marbles, granites, and serpentines. If we have a Saturday free, an excursion of the Geologists' Association may attract us. At any rate, we shall notice that London lies in a geological basin, and, if our drinking-water is from some deep artesian well, we may thank our stars that London has such a favored situation as not to be entirely dependent for water-supply upon the filthy Thames. Let us go north. There are three main lines of tourist travel. The most westerly passes by the lake district of Westmoreland and Cumberland. It is curious to note how uniformly that combination of mountain and lake which is most attractive for summer resort occurs where a region of metamorphic rocks has been subjected to glacial action. Lake Superior and Windermere, Maine and Switzerland, all answer to this description. We dare not stop to discuss the reasons. (See 4, chapter xxvii; 10, p. 516.) We shall see the same sort of thing in the Trossachs and Switzerland. If you want to do any detailed work in the region, start in from Keswick, where a museum contains local collections and models.
Scotch surface geology is of the same glaciated type so familiar in America, and those who wish to study the parallel roads of Lochaber, or the Tertiary gabbros of Judd, must turn to the Scotch survey for guidance (3, 5, 13). For us an excursion or two about Edinburgh must suffice. The collections of the Museum of Science and Art are fine, and we can climb the volcanic crags of Castle Hill, Calton Hill, or Arthur's Seat, and wonder what the landscape was like when hot lava rolled down Salisbury crags. At Newhaven, near by, on the shore of the Firth of Forth, the clay ironstone is exposed, and, breaking open the oblong pebbles, you may find a fish, but more likely a coprolite or septarium. If you wish to see more of the Carboniferous and the coal and iron industry, you have only to run down to Gilmerton, near which are numerous coal-mines, and great piles of iron-ore a-roasting. Ganoid scales and teeth are not rare, and are collected by some workmen. The name of one was Joseph Blair, of Loamhead.
On our way south again we shall probably pass through the Peak of Derbyshire and behold the scenery of the subcarboniferous, the great mountain limestone in its most beautiful development, its dewy dells, its steep yet rounded bluffs, and its innumerable caves. So far as caves are concerned, the formation in Kentucky surpasses it, but its veins of lead and fluor-spar—blue John as it is called—are peculiar to it.
Farther south, near Bedford, the oölites and Oxford clay are well exposed, beds not much developed in our Eastern States, and not far off, near Cambridge, the chalk comes in. The Cambridge greensand, formerly worked for phosphates, is nearly worked out, I believe, but hosts of the charming little ammonites, brachiopods, and crabs that the workings yielded, are stored in the museum, awaiting exchange. In the museum, too, you may learn where the chalk is best to be seen, and whether any recent excursion has probably cleaned the workmen out of all their good sea-urchins. They say that from Cambridge to the Ural Mountains no land rises above two hundred feet, and certainly off toward the fen-land which man has redeemed from the sea it looks plausible. What a change in the geography and politics of Europe a submergence of two hundred feet would cause!
Back once more in London, other excursions invite us (see 2, and the reports of excursions of the various Geological Societies and meetings of the British Association) to the Isle of Wight, or to the Lizard, which is, naturally enough, serpentine. But between so many it is easier to skip them all than make a choice. Let us follow the track of the Geologists' Association to Belgium (14). Reaching Brussels, we find in the Musée Royale near the picture-gallery a magnificent collection, unique in its iguanodons, and finely arranged to illustrate geological excursions. Notice, for example, the section along the Meuse, with illustrative specimens.
In the suburbs of Brussels the work of the builder is continally opening and closing sections in the tertiary sands, but somewhere surely one can see the grès fistuleux of the Bruxellien, whose curious columns of sandstone, consolidated around annelid tubes, stand up amid the yet unconsolidated sand. Various nummulite zones occur, but not recent information as to where to pick up these coins of Nature's realm is valueless (compare, however, 14). Shark's and skate's teeth also occur, and occasional crabs. Very close to Calevoet Station I picked up a chunk of half-consolidated sand fairly bristling with teeth. The pamphlet (14) covers the ground so well that I need not dwell on Belgian geology, except to call attention to the agricultural geological soil map (15). Nor does Holland call for particular remark, except that one should not fail to run down to Katwykam-Zee from Leyden, or Scheveningen from the Hague to see the mighty dune-bulwarks that protect the land from the storms of the North Sea.
Starting up the Rhine, we shall have passed out of Holland before we leave alluvial soil, and a route which has much more of geologic interest and variety, and is not devoid of beauty and historic association, is to go across the Belgian coal-fields, scenes of the worst European strikes, up the gorge of the Meuse. In passing, I note that the curious porphyroids of Bonney (14) and Renard have been recently blasted into in road-repairing, so that the next comers will have a better chance than for some years before, when the continuous attrition of geologists' hammers had rounded off every corner. At Charleville-Mezières, a typical provincial French town, we stand on the rim of the Paris basin, and gryphæas of the Lias abound. Thence, running along the rim of the basin past Sedan, we come to Luxemburg or Metz. Luxemburg is beautifully situated, being surrounded by canons cut into the sandstone here so typically developed that it is called the Luxemburg sandstone. If we go to Metz, the work of fortification still going on gives good sections in the Jura. Only beware lest you are charged upon by some too vigilant sentry, as a friend of mine was. I escaped by being careful not to have maps or note-books around in sight. However, if attacked, pick up a cidaris club and defend yourself manfully. We can go on to Treves, into the Eiffel, or down the Moselle, or to Saarbrücken, the great coal-center and first point attacked by Napoleon III, and down the Nahe to the Rhine. Whichever is omitted may also be taken as a side excursion from the Rhine.
Suppose, however, we go straight up the Rhine. We come first to Cologne. Climbing the cathedral, we see off on the southeast the seven blue summits of the Siebengebirge, whence the gray trachyte with sparkling sanidin crystals comes, that lines the winding staircase we have ascended. In the Siebengebirge is the cave of the dragon that Siegfried destroyed, and true it is, according to geologic tale, that once the volcano did cut off the mighty stream that glides in serpentine course beneath our feet. The victory was but for a time, however. Siegfried is dead, and so is the volcano, but dragons and rivers are hundred-headed and immortal, and the Nibelungen gold is still guarded securely. To the Siebengebirge, then, will be our next excursion, and we had best start from Bonn, the famous university town. We can there buy what guides we wish (16), and visit the collections of the Poppelsdorfer Schloss, valuable and beautiful themselves, and especially to us, as they illustrate by models and specimens what we are to see. Some of the rooms are fantastically decorated with bits of satin-spar and shells. Sturz's natural history store, one of the finest and largest—but not the cheapest—in the world, is in Bonn. His polyglot catalogue gives many hints for excursions to the collector.
Along here Baedeker has an unusual amount of geologic notes, and so we pass rapidly on, noting casually the imprints of leaves in the trass of the Brohlthal, and the Laacher See, latest worked upon by an American, L. L. Hubbard. At last we reach Coblentz, from which one division of the Devonian, through which we are passing across the strike, takes its name. Here the valley of the Moselle invites us to take a détour into the district of little extinct volcanoes called the Eifel. This is one of the standard geological excursions (16), and in the Whitsuntide vacation of 1886 there met in Gerolstein no less than thirty-five geologists, representing five different German universities, and I dare not guess how many nationalities.
The little inns that are sprinkled through the district are generally good, and well up on the customary mineral localities. This is one of the great regions for volcanic minerals, augite, hornblende, sanidin, olivin, apatite, sodalite, etc. In the neighborhood of Gerolstein abundant Devonian fossils are collected, calceola, gomphoceras, trilobites, and corals. At Gerolstein itself is a dealer in such things at reasonable prices (except for the trilobites). This village is prettily situated, and rejoices in an open fountain of soda-water. These are, in fact, common in the Eifel, the Apollinaris being the most famous, but many others, as Birresborn, are as good. Over against Gerolstein lies a bluff crowned with a massive limestone, once the bottom of a synclinal fold, which reminds one of the text of Isaiah, "Every valley shall be exalted." On our excursion we spent the first night in Wittlich; the village is not near the station, for Continental stations have a way of splitting the difference between two towns which must be well borne in mind by the walker. The next morning we rode on to the Mosenberg, an extinct volcano that has three crater rings very distinct. Coming down, after a détour to the Meerfelder Maar that I do not recommend (the meat at the inn was little, but lively), we went on to Manderscheid. Here we had a good dinner at the Hotel Zeus. No doubt our whetted appetites added sauce, but those trout were certainly good.
I know of no spot on earth so romantic as the situation of the twin-castles of Manderscheid. A stream flows in a huge S about two ridges of rock, on which the castles are built, so narrow in places that one could hold a thousand in check. Out along one of these rocks, then steeply down and up—a rough scramble not suited for skirts—we went to Gillenfeld, passing a couple more crater-lakes on the way. Here we stopped the second night. The inn was full, so that I went out to the "pastor's" to sleep. The next morning, in spite of lowering and later pouring weather, we took a détour to the Pulver Maar, another lake without an outlet, where sanidin bombs may reward the seeker, and bits of underlying Devonian slate are strewn through the strata of volcanic ash. Returning to Gillenfeld, we had a little something to eat and drink—the Germans never neglect the inner man—and went on past its crater-lakes to Daur, where we dined at Hotel Hommes. On the card of this inn is a sketch-map of the Eifel, and a geological map and minerals are about the house. While waiting for dinner we picked up a lot of augite crystals from the locality near by. After dinner we hired a dray-cart and pushed on to Dreis, arriving there late, to spend the third night. The next morning, after collecting basaltic hornblende east of the town, in crystals up to the size of an egg, mostly rounded a little by fusion, and taking also some of the olivine bombs, of which so many are scattered through the museums, we went rather across country to Gerolstein. There is much of interest on the way, first petrographic, afterward more paleontologic.
From Gerolstein various further excursions can be made. A visit to the ice-cave of Roth is refreshing in the heat of summer. But the summer tourist must not tarry. So on to Treves, and down the Moselle and up the Rhine, till passing through the ridge of Taunus we emerge into the upper plain of the Rhine at Bingen. From Bingen a side excursion to Münster-am-Stein, if no farther, is of great interest and beauty (17), and those who are attracted by the silver sheen of tiger-eye, the peacock hues of labradorite, or the delicate tracery of moss-agate, should not give Oberstein the go-by. Here, and near by, the semi-precious stones are polished for all Europe, and from Heinrich J. Steffen can be obtained specimens of the melaphyres in whose cavities agates are wont to come, and of the fossils of the region—trilobites and ophiuroids. The view from the station of town and river, and above two castles and a church curiously let into the rock, is said to be one of the three finest on the Rhenish railways.
Near Kreuznach I may mention Hackenheim churchyard and a little southeast as a place where fossils of the Mayence basin abound, and the valley from Kreuznach to Winterburg and back over the Welschberg, with its patch of Tertiary to Bockelheim, as giving a good section of the country. If you want to see more of the Mayence basin, a good way will be to seek the tall chimneys of the cement-factories and the neighboring limestone and clay-pits—e. g., those of Wiesenau. From this region immense quantities of cement are exported to America. The two sides of the great Rhine Valley, which has till recently been considered a typical case of dropping in, are not unlike. Most people go down the east side, and we will follow them. The Taunus region has some interesting porphyroids and sericite rocks. Next comes the Odenwald. The northern part of this lias not been recently described (18) as a whole, although there is much of petrographic interest. The Rothliegendes, with its amygdaloids, is broken through by basalt, which at the Rossberg has glass inclosures, at the Oetzberg sandstone inclosures. In Darmstadt is a museum, which may be of assistance. South of Darmstadt, around Castle Frankenstein, is a mass of gabbro and diorite with many interesting varieties. Near Auerbach marble occurs, and in sundry other places garnet rocks.
We now are approaching Heidelberg, a town well placed as a center for geologic excursions. Benecke and Cohen (19) have, however, one fault as guides. They are too complete; so that a few remarks may not be out of place. North of Heidelberg the petrographer will find much and the paleontologist nothing, for the well-known Triassic sandstone and the Rothliegendes are not fossiliferous. South of Heidelberg, however, past the cadmium and zinc mines of Wiesloch, we can get a continuous section through the whole Trias well up into the Jura. Lime-pits and cement-works quarries afford exposures into the weaker beds, and the workmen have learned to save the ammonites, etc. East of Heidelberg, following up the beautiful valley of the Neckar, we come to the nephelinite of the Katzenbuckel, a stone in places so coarse as to yield when weathered distinct crystals of nepheline.
In the Friedrichsbau of the old university is an interesting collection of maps, models, and specimens. There is also a school of petrography much frequented by students of all nations, especially Americans. On the steep way up to the castle from the Prinz Carl Hotel is the natural curiosity store of Blatz, the oldest house in Germany, I believe, with very reasonable prices. The granite on which the castle stands is best exposed on the Valerien-Weg, a pretty path just beyond the Carlsthor. Leaving the valley of the Neckar, the hills gradually grow lower and more rounded till near Baden we approach the Black Forest through which the Black Forest Railway winds its bold and tortuous way. Geologically this is essentially like the Odenwald, and Eck's inexpensive maps (20) will serve as guides. I should not pass Strasburg and Freiburg without mention. The one, with a university, fine collections, and a geological survey, is the natural center for excursions in Alsace—not so pleasant just now, for geology has less regard for frontiers than have the French and Germans. The other has also university collections, and may be made the center for excursions in the Black Forest or to the Kaiserstuhl, an isolated volcanic peak rising out of the Rhine, and a locality for limburgite, perowskite, and zeolitic minerals. It is mostly cultivated in those oblong patches characteristic of peasant proprietorship.
Switzerland is now our goal, but when should I leave off if I began describing? There the guide-book must perforce pay attention to the works of God that tower so stupendously above those of man. There is even an old scientific guide to Switzerland (31). But while leaving you mainly to the books (2, 3, 6, 10, 12, 21, 22, 31), I may properly emphasize the enormous folding that the rocks have suffered, till gneiss and limestone are intercalated (10), the gradual rise of the chain on the north, and relatively sudden drop-off facing the great plain of Lombardy. The land-slips around the lake of Zug have attracted recent attention, and the origin of the Swiss lakes has already been referred to. The main scientific centers and collections are at Zurich, Berne (where the great smoky quartz crystals are), and Geneva.
Let us still keep south. In the Odenwald, Black Forest, and Taunus, we had seen the old age of mountains, their teeth worn down to stumps; in the Alps we have seen their manhood, the sharp "dents" piercing the sky. In the Apennines we shall find them in youth just cutting their teeth, with gums still bleeding lava. But as you reach Turin, climb over the huge mass of Miocene gravel to the Superga, and cast one long look back. Fear not, for yonder snowy breaker towering high in the north has towered there for generations, and the plain of Lombardy still smiles as green as ever. Finally, we turn our backs to the glorious vision and press on through hills growing ever steeper, sharper, through rocks more and more crystalline, till suddenly the bay of Genoa bursts on our view. At Genoa the university is housed in a grand old palace, but the collections are huddled together. The civic museum is better. A couple of miles west of Genoa, north of Sestri Ponente, are some gabbros and serpentines over which is still a lively discussion. All along the coast of the Riviera we are among rocks that are not old but much disturbed, and contain numerous injections of cupriferous serpentine.
Past Carrara we go—a side-trip expensive and not very rewarding; the snow-white quarries can be seen from the train—and on to Pisa. The collection of the university here boasts the finest cinnabar crystal in the world. It comes from Elba. This interesting island (24*) and Corsica are conveniently reached from Leghorn. A little farther down the coast branches off the line to Saline. This is a pleasant side-trip to one acquainted with Italian. North of Saline is Monte Catini, with copper-mines and a unique mica trachyte—used for mile-posts, and by the Etruscans for carving. Over the gate of Volterra near by is a head of unknown antiquity. Volterra is the center of the alabaster industry, and a gypsum formation crops out frequently in the neighborhood. Not far off to the south are the borax springs that supply Europe, the nearest being at Monte Arboli. Returning to the main line a little farther south is San Vincenzo, where a cordierite trachyte occurs, and in the works for lead and zinc near by toward Campiglia fine specimens of botryoidal bustamite are to be found.
Soon another line goes off to our left to Monte Amiata, an extinct volcano, whose lava contains interesting glass balls. It has recently been thoroughly described by an American, J. F. Williams ("Neues Jahrbuch," 1887). Half-way from here to Rome the volcanic tufa of the Campagna (25) comes in, and soon we are in sight of St. Peter's. There are collections in the university, but more modern ones at the rooms of the "Comitate Geologico," not very far from the railway-station in the modern quarter. On the Campagna the Roman cement—pozzuolana—diggings should be noticed, and we should go far enough on the Appian Way to visit the quarries in the melilith basalt of the Capo di Bove, whose cavities abound in tiny crystals of melilith, apatite, nepheline, etc. Monte Mario is well known for Pliocene fossils, and from Tivoli comes the famous travertine building-stone of Rome. The region of the Alban Lake affords pretty excursions. The workmen have leucite crystals.
Lago Bolsena is interesting but hard to get at. So on to Naples, where an Englishman, Dr. Lavis, is the present authority (23) on Vesuvius and Monte Somma, and has a fine collection. We should not fail to notice that east of Naples is another volcanic district, in type, time, and products of eruption quite distinct from Vesuvius, the Phlegræan fields, the front garden of the infernal regions, according to Virgil.
Armed with a permit from the palace at Naples, we visit the beautiful park crater of Astroni. The way leads past the famous Grotto del Cane, along the Lago d'Agnano, once a lake, now drained. On the road to Pozzuoli, where the Serapeum has had literally so many ups and downs, is the Solfatara, another smaller but livelier crater. A steam-tramway also connects Pozzuoli and Naples, and this may be made the starting-point of a second excursion among further craters. Lake Avernus, etc., which should certainly include a climb up Monte Nuovo, newest of mountains. May you be more fortunate than I, and have a chance to go farther and visit Etna and Sicily! But most of us must now return. Before we leave, one last warning: don't lay out too much for a day's work near Naples, Water is scarce and bad, wine is not good for walkers, and the climate is relaxing.
On the way back from Rome we will follow the central trough of the Arno and Tiber, which, near the water-shed where the water was dubious which way to go, was for a long time very marshy, but has been in this century greatly improved by a process of controlling the mountain-streams and making them deposit their detritus so as to increase the grade. Notice on the west side how the layer of tufa overlying Pliocene sands resists erosion and makes flat-capped, naturally-walled hills. The site of Orvieto is a good example. In Florence are also collections, but the Tuscan Exposition of 1887 will probably have altered their arrangement.
At Prato, a little north of Florence, famous for vanilla-drops and a bronze screen, we may leave the train and walk a few miles to Monte Ferrato, where there are quarries of a beautiful gabbro, pietra verde, much used for decoration. It is surrounded by serpentine and porcelanized slate. At the Cave del Acqua it is most coarse and fresh. Soon after we turn sharply and cross the Apennines over to Bologna (3, 23). As from Turin to Genoa, so here—the whole range is Tertiary and the same horizons which in Belgium we saw hardly disturbed since their deposition, are here highly metamorphosed. The University of Bologna has a fine, well-ordered collection, especially to be visited by those who will tarry a little in the Euganeans, where Petrarch was born (10). Thus they will get an idea of the peculiar volcanic products awaiting them. There are still hot baths at Battaglia.
Every one will notice the Holland-like character of the country about Ferrara, and the way the Po flows along with its bed above the adjacent fields, over pebbles from the Alps far away, and will wonder how long it will be before the lagoons about Venice will in their turn become fertile plains. We have been around Italy. We may now go via Verona—don't pay the awful prices the man at the amphitheatre asks for his fossils—and Trent up into the Tyrol. The Tyrol and Switzerland are geographically but not geologically divided, so I need add only a reference to the work of Von Buch on the dolomites (10), and that of the Austrian geologists (12*). In Innsbruck is a very full geognostic collection.
We may go hence to Munich, where Groth's new laboratory affords every luxury to the mineralogist and petrographer, and Zittel conducts the most famous school of paleontology in the world, and Gumbel directs the Bavarian survey (3). Or the route to Vienna, by way of the Salzkammergut, is interesting, and the city is a focus of scientific interest, with a magnificent university.
Farther east the casual tourist will scarcely go, although no country of Europe surpasses Hungary in geological interest, where there are several important mining centers. I have been as far as Constantinople, with no extra trouble except that caused by the numerous dialects. The Austrian geologists are fully abreast with the times.
But, turning from Vienna northwest, we come into Bohemia, the scene of Barrande's great labors. Its mineral springs (38), of which Carlsbad, whence the twinned orthoclase, is the most famous, and Marienbad the best tasting; its coal-basin, its phonolites (that of Neuhof shows the nepheline to the naked eye), and basalts and porphyries, are all noteworthy (35). The rocks near Marienbad have been recently described by H. B. Patton. In this region, too, is a place that should stir the soul of every American, Joachimsthal, the birthplace of the dollar, i. e., thaler. The silver-mines are still carried on in a picayune sort of way, largely for fancy ores, uranium, etc.; but by their gradual exhaustion the population is being driven into the manufacture of Bohemian lace and kid gloves. Bohemian garnets are too well known to need mention.
Passing north, we will follow the valley of the Elbe, which has cut its way through the massive Quader sandstone, leaving it in plateaus or isolated towers, affording the finest specimen of canon scenery known to me in Europe. The way is lined with quarries, for the cream-colored sandstone is extensively used for building in Dresden and elsewhere, and takes the place of the Bunt or new red sandstone in the region of the Rhine. Not far from Dresden, in Plauen, are large quarries in the rock that is the German type of syenite, and is supposed to have no quartz.
Thence we may go on to Leipsic, the seat of the famous university and of the Saxon survey (3 and 29). Zirkel and Credner are located here. The black pyroxenic quartz porphyry of Kleinsteinberg, close by, has attracted much attention. We are now on the edge of the great plain of North Germany, with nothing but sands washed by glacial drift from Scandinavia to the north of us, except where the Harz (the kingdom of Prof. Lossen) rises like an island (30*). On the way is Stassfurt, whose mines are a chemical storehouse for the world.
There are, of course, other points of great interest in Germany—Freiberg, in Saxony, the star of whose mining-school has passed the zenith. Those who make a pilgrimage to Baireuth are among fossiliferous beds (Allersdorff), and not far from the Fichtelgebirge. The Solenhofen lithographic stone and its fossils are unique, but geologic attention has not been recently concentrated on Würtemberg (26 and 27). We have not yet visited Norway, Russia, Spain, or France. Through the latter country Meunier will guide us (31*, 32, 6). In Paris we must part company, after, I hope, a pleasant tour. Don't fail to visit the Sorbonne and the Jardin des Plantes. All the lectures are public, and the Jardin des Plantes has also fine general collections.
BOOKS AND MAPS SERVICEABLE.
(1) See the Preis-Verzeichniss of R. Lechner in Vienna (Wien). Also—
(2) Stanford's Tourist Catalogue, 1884, with addenda and corrigenda since (gratis). This firm's specialty is geologic and geographic publications. The guide to the Isle of Wight by M. W. Norman, 1887, may not be catalogued yet.
(3) For geologic maps see National Geological Surveys of Europe, by William Topley (6d.), 1885, London, Trübner & Co.
Note that the official surveys are not always strictly confined within boundary-lines. So the Austrians have done much work in the Balkans, and the earlier French survey of De Beaumont covers one's route up to Italy or the Tyrol. Many of the books and geologic guides mentioned below include or accompany maps. Such are starred. Of bulky works on European geology the following are the best:
(4*) Ramsay, Physical Geology and Geography of Great Britain (11s. 6d.), 1878, E. Stanford, London. Just out is Woodward's Geology of England and Wales, 1887, 18s.
(5*) Geikie, A., Text-Book of Geology, 1882.
(6) De Lapparent, Traité de Geologie, 1885, F, Savy, Paris. (The last seven hundred pages contain a full account of the formations in various countries, with references.)
(7) Mourlon, Géologie de la Belgique, 1881, F. Savy, Paris. (Purely local.)
(8) Credner, H., Elemente der Geologie, 1883, Leipsic, Engelmann.
(9) Roth, J., Allgemeine und chemische Geologie, 1879-1883, W. Herz, Berlin. (The second volume, just complete, is full of petrographic localities and references.)
(10) M. Neumayr, Erdgeschichte (16 marks), 1886, Bibliog. Institut, Leipsic. Very fresh and finely illustrated.
(11) Suess, Das Anthtz der Erde.
(12*) Von Hauer, F., Geologie (as applied to Austria), 1878, A. Holder, Vienna (Wien).
Of smaller transportable works may be mentioned the following:
(13*) Geikie, Outlines of the Geology of the British Isles (2s.), 1876, W. & A. K. Johnston, Edinburgh.
(14) Geology of Belgium and the French Ardennes (1s. 6d.), 1885, Stanford, London. (By various writers; includes rough sketch-map and references to Dewalque's map, etc.).
A joint excursion in the environs of Brussels was made by the Geologic and Malacologic Societies, reported by A. Rutot, 1881. A separate reprint of this would be the best guide. Such reprints are valuable guides, and are often advertised in catalogues of second-hand books, or may also often he obtained of the secretaries of the various societies or the authors.
(15*) The agricultural geology of Belgium, sketched in 14, is treated more fully by Malaise and De Laveleye.
(16*) On the geology of the Rhine (Baedeker has something), Von Dechen has a series of Geognostische Führer in das Siebengebirge, Vorder-Eifel, Hinter-Eifel, etc. In society proceedings, various papers by Wolff, Hubbard, Las-peyres, etc.
(17) Führer für Besucher des Nahethal, 1884, Voigtländer, Kreuznach, has geologic and botanic appendices.
The work of the Prussian Survey of Weiss and Laspeyres, and the Flötzkarte of Saarbrücken may be noticed.
(18*) Ludwig, R., published a Geologische Skizze, to go with the map of Hesse (see 3), out of print now. There is a new survey by Lepsius in course of publication.
(19*) Geognostische Beschreibung der Umgebung von Heidelberg, Benecke & Cohen, 1877.
(20*) Eck, H., has issued a series of good maps on the Black Forest, the Black Forest Railway and environs, Renchbäder, Ottenhofer, etc., very much detailed, poorly printed, and cheap in price; 1885-'87, Lahr.
(21) Heim, A., is the great authority on the structure of the Alps, folds, faults, etc. His results are given, however, in (6), (8), and especially (10). Tyndall and Agassiz are mentioned, honoris causâ, on glaciers.
(22*) Stapf, Geological Map of the Saint Gothard Railroad from Erstfeld to Arbedo, 1:25,000. Practically covers the whole crystalline belt.
(23) Italy has been traversed by so many that the geological literature is wide-strewn. A bibliography was published in 1881 for the International Geological Congress at Bologna. J. Roth's Vesuv. and Lavis, in the "Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society," London, are up to date.
(24*) Lotti, B., Desc. Geol. del Isola Elba, 1886.
(25) Carta Geol. della Campagna Romana, 1880, Roma.
For the Tyrol the Italian part of the Austrian publications should be noted. Guides to collections often have a wider usefulness. Among such pre-eminent are those for Berlin and Strasburg.
(26*) For Würtemberg, besides the old Geognostische Verhältnisse, by Hehl (1 mark), 1850, Schweizerbart, Stuttgart, is the newer—
(27) Die geognostische Sammlungen Würtembergs, by Oscar Fraas (0·50 mark), third edition just out, Schweizerbart. Stuttgart.
(28) Laube, G., Geologische Excurs. im Thermalgebirte des N. W. Böhmens, 1884, Leipsic. Among other workers in the same field in journals are Reuss, Boricky, Becke, and Patton.
(29*) Credner, H., Geologischer Führer durch das sächsische Granulitgebirge, 1880, W. Engelmann, Leipsic. There is also a fuller "Beschreibung" by the same author.
(80*) Lossen, K. A., has published a very thorough map of the Harz, which is expensive. The literature is mostly published by the Prussian Survey. See (3), as also for Bavaria.
(31) Meunier, S., Excursions géologiques a travers la France, 1882, G. Masson, Paris. (Chatty; includes Belgium and part of Switzerland.)
The smaller French school-books, e. g.—
(32*) Von Raulin, Éléments de Géologie, are very local, and handy to the pocket.
(33) Catalogues to porcelain manufacture, to geologic models, to rock specimens, fossils, mineral collections, mining records, and guide to geology of London (prices 3s., 2s. 6d., 2s., 2s., 4s. 6d., and 1s.), Museum of Practical Geology, Jermyn Street.
(34) Scientific Guide to Switzerland, Morrell. I have not tested it by experience.
(35) Hibsch gives the literature of northwestern Bohemia in Tschermak's Min, and petr., Mittheilungen, 1887, Wien, Alfred Holden.- ↑ The numbers refer to the books at the end.