Of all the Asiatic ranges the Himalayan is, geologically, the best known; and the evidence which it affords shows clearly that the folds to which it owes its elevation were produced by an overthrust from the north.
The overthrust came from the south-east, and the Palaeozoic beds were crushed and crumpled against the ancient massif of the central plateau.
In the north the Rocky Mountains consist principally of two parallel ranges, the Lewis and Clark Range to the east, and the Livingston Range to the west, which were formed by a great overthrust; between them is the Waterton-McDonald valley, 8-15 m.
Farther north in Montana, beyond the gorge of the Missouri river, the structure of the Front Range is altogether different; it is here the carved residual of a great mass of moderately bent Palaeozoic strata, overthrust eastward upon the Mesozoic strata of the plains; instead of exposing the oldest rocks along the axis and the youngest rocks low down on the flanks, the younger rocks of the northern range follow its axis, and the oldest rocks outcrop along its eastern flanks, where they override the much younger strata of the plains; the harder strata, instead of lapping on the mountain flanks in great slab-like masses, as in the Bighorns, form out-facing scarps, which retreat into the mountain interior where they are cut down by outfiowing streams.
In the former even the Pliocene beds are crumpled and folded, overfolded and overthrust in the most violent fashion; in the latter none but the oldest beds, certainly none so late as the Permian, have been crumpled or crushed - occasionally they are bent and frequently they are faulted, but the faults, though sometimes of considerable magnitude, are simple dislocations, unaccompanied by any serious disturbance of the strata.
