320 Intelligence and Miscellaneous Articles, 



age as that of Bromsgrove, being also a soft, light-coloured, 

 slightly micaceous and thick-bedded sandstone : and rising up 

 immediately from beneath the red marl, it cannot be confounded 

 with the upper or Keuper sandstone, which at Rowington Tunnel 

 and Shrawley Common is seen to overlie the great mass of red 

 marl in manner before described. 



Portions of bones of saurians abound in what the workmen call 

 the dirt bed of the Warwick sandstone ; but the fragments are so 

 mutilated, and generally in such a decomposed state, that they can- 

 not be identified. Plants also occur, but from a similar cause their 

 recognition is very difficult. In addition to the fossils collected 

 by Dr. Buckland, the authors have found teeth of fishes. 



As no attempt has been made to prove that the animal found in 

 Guy's Cliffis of the same species as either of the Phytosauri of the 

 Keuper of Wirtemberg ; the authors throw it out as a probable 

 conjecture, that if ever accurately determined, it will prove of the 

 same species as one of the saurians in the bunter sandstein of the 

 continent. 



The sandstone of Warwick is therefore identified with the rock 

 of Bromsgrove and Ombersley in Worcestershire, and Hawkstone 

 and Grinshill in Shropshire, which has been shown to be a portion 

 of the red sandstone representing the gres bigarre or bunter sand- 

 stein. 



Although assiduous search has been made to discover a calca- 

 reous stratum between the two formations above described, which 

 might represent the " Muschelkalk," no traces of such a rock have 

 been detected except in Shropshire, where Mr. Murchison has noticed 

 a band of very impure limestone, occupying the same interme- 

 diate position, hut as yet no organic remains have been observed in 

 it. 



On the whole the authors conclude, that the most exact parallel, 

 exists between the upper formations of the new red system of 

 England, and those of a large part of France, where the muschel- 

 kalk being also absent, the marnes irrisees and gres bigarre pass 

 into each other in the manner above described*. 



XXXIX. Intelligence and Miscellaneous Articles. 



CARBOV1NATE OF POTASH. 



MM. Dumas and Peligot by passing a current of dry carbonic 

 acid into a solution of barytes in pyroxylic spirit (I* esprit de 

 bois) obtained carbo-methytate of barytes. The production of this 

 compound led them to suppose that the preparation of the carbovinates 

 would be attended with but little difficulty. When, however, this 

 idea was put in practice, they were interrupted by the discovery 

 that although pyroxylic spirit dissolves anhydrous barytes, yet al- 

 cohol does not possess this property ; they therefore tried whether 

 the use of an alcoholic solution of ammonia would not be attended 

 with success. By passing a current of dry carbonic acid through 



• See the writings of M. Dufrenoy and M. Elie de Beaumont. (Memoire 

 pour servir a une de scription geologique de la France, vol. i. p. 313 et seq.) 



