18 SCIENCE PROGRESS. 



D.— CARBONIFEROUS ROCKS. 



We find many additions to our knowledge of the car- 

 boniferous deposits of France and Belgium. Julien (22) 

 gives reasons for concluding that the relative ages of the 

 beds of the two coal basins of Commentry and Saint 

 Etienne can be fixed by a comparison of their floras. The 

 flora of Commentry contains 210 species, and is divisible 

 into minor floras at different horizons. The strata of the 

 Commentry basin to the east are subdivided into three 

 groups by the intercalation of a very fossiliferous sandstone, 

 the "banc des Roseaux," and a little higher up by an- 

 other deposit, an unfossiliferous "breccia," the "banc des 

 Chavais," which the author considers to be of glacial origin. 

 To the west the deposits lose their unity of character, and 

 are divisible into six groups separated by shale-partings. 

 The "banc des Chavais" disappears, as does also the 

 "banc des Roseaux," but the latter is replaced by an 

 equally fossiliferous deposit, the "banc de l'Ouest " ; at the 

 base a grit separates the main mass of the strata from the 

 " glacial " breccia of Sainte- Aline. 



Examining each minor flora separately, noting the 

 species common to the Saint Etienne and Commentry 

 basins, and having studied their exact distribution, the 

 author is enabled to establish the synchronism of the 

 corresponding subdivisions in the two basins. He gives a 

 brief account of his results, reserving details for a further 

 communication. He maintains that the glacial origin of 

 the various breccias of Commentry, established by a study 

 of their character, is confirmed by the palaeontological 

 stratigraphy. 



Stainier (23) and Briart (24) give accounts of the coal 

 basins of Andenne and Hainault. The former basin con- 

 stitutes a natural division of the large Liege basin, and its 

 structure is analogous to that of the larger basin. The 

 paper gives details concerning the stratigraphy and dis- 

 turbances of the rocks of the basin. A reversed fault, the 

 " faille de Boussale," brings Devonian rocks over coal 

 measures at the south-east end of the basin ; it gradually 

 dies out towards the west. The Hainault basin is also 



