Geology of the Austrian Alps. 81 



by us. If we alone were to support this accident, we would 

 have a strong party to combat, and our assertion might be 

 more than counterbalanced by their complete denial ; but we 

 have fortunately an arbiter in this case they cannot refuse, hav- 

 ing formerly accepted his evidence. Count Munster wrote, 

 March 1828, to Kefferstein, that he had observed among the 

 Gossau fossils, young specimens of the Gryphcea columba of the 

 greensand, and his letter was published in the Geological 

 Gazette, page 99 of the 6th vol. part 2d, of the Teutchland 

 Geognostisch-Geohgisch dargestellt. published in 1829 by Kef- 

 ferstein. In my collection, I have that fossil in ihe state de- 

 scribed by Count Munster, and Mr Lill has it also. This is a 

 case in which we may apply the judicious observations of De 

 France, upon the variations which a species may undergo, or 

 upon the different states in which a fossil may have been petri- 

 fied in various localities. We trust that this explanation will 

 dissipate every doubt regarding this point, and that my oppo- 

 nents will also be forced to place in the tertiary formation this 

 fossil, so characteristic for the greensand, or they must change 

 their opinion. Besides, M. de France recognised in my collec- 

 tion another small species of gryphite, which he has from other 

 chalk localities. 



Lastly, we come to the singular reproach made to us, that, 

 in order to determine ihe age of the Gossau deposite, we 

 had recourse to the characters presented by similar patches 

 found here and there in the Austrian Alps. Our mode of pro- 

 ceeding, whatever our authors may say to the contrary, is 

 strictly logical. It was only necessary to be certain that the 

 localities we compared were geologically identical, on which 

 point there remains not a shadow of doubt in the minds of those 

 geologists acquainted with the country, viz. Messrs Partsch and 

 Kefferstein. Unfortunately our authors visited only Gossau, but 

 they are not from this circumstance to deny that similar depo- 

 sites may not exist elsewhere. Indeed, such an assumption would 

 be in opposition to their own theory, according to which, this 

 formation should have been pretty generally distributed and 

 divided into isolated masses by the upheaving of the Alps. If 

 they had seen, as our excellent friends, Mess. Partsch and Kef- 

 ferstein, and we also, the localities of Griinbach, Hieflau, Gams, 



