Published online by Cambridge University Press: 01 May 2009
Of the amount of vertical movement which took place in the great mountain axis of the Eastern continent, subsequently to the deposition of the Eocene strata, the following facts afford sufficient proof. The marine Nummulitic rocks, besides constituting very large portions of the flanks of this vast mountain axis, and of its connected chains, such as the Pyrenees, the Carpathians, and the Caucasus, form the actual summits of such grand Alpine peaks as the Diablerets, and the Dent du Midi, rising to the heights of 10,670 and 10,531 respectively above the sea-level; while in Western Thibet the same Eocene strata are seen raised to an elevation of no less than 16,500 feet above the sea.
page 532 note 1 Mr. Major has shown that there is ground for believing that a series of old rocks mentioned in some old sailing directions as existing midway between Iceland and Greenland, and called Grumbjorns Skerries, were blown up by a volcanic eruption in 1456, and long after that date formed a reef which has since diminished greatly in height. Here then we probably have another relic of this submerged chain of volcanic peaks.