Scientific Intelligence. — Geology, 897 



old coral beds, strata of tertiary limestone, which are placed 

 above chalk, and filled with coral petrifactions. — Humboldt^ To- 

 hleaux de la Nature, t. i. p. 90. 



15. On Broivn Coal, or Lignite, and Oolite, superimposed 

 on Chalk; discovered in Bessarabia by M. EicJifield. — In a 

 geological point of view, this brown coal or lignite is chiefly- 

 worthy of attention from the circumstance of its facilitating the 

 study of the tertiary rocks, which have hitherto been so little 

 examined. According to the commonly received geological opi- 

 nions, founded on the examination of mountains in Germany, 

 France, England, Switzerland, Italy and part of Scandinavia, 

 and confirmed by Humboldt's observations in the mountains of 

 America, lignites ought to occur with the plastic clay, above a 

 formation of chalk. In Bessarabia, the chalk formation ap- 

 pears at the surface, in the neighbourhood of Mohilef, on the 

 Dniester, and extends into Moldavia, in the north-east direction. 

 The formations situated between this chain of chalk mountains 

 and the sea present no analogy to the tertiary formation of 

 France. Here, above the chalk, there occur, 1*^, To a fathom 

 and a half, a coarse sand ; I2c?, An argillaceous rock, containing 

 some lime, and of which the lower part is somewhat silicious, 

 eight inches; '6d, A cretaceous limestone, five feet thick, end- 

 ing in oolite in its upper parts ; ^th. Then a thin bed of sand 

 and compact limestone ; 5th, Lastly, the whole plain to the sea 

 and the Danube is solely composed of horizontal limestone, filled 

 with shells. In the cavities of this principal formation, and ge- 

 nerally between the territory of Brender and the sea, in the di- 

 rection of north-west, there occurs silicious limestone, with re- 

 mains of shells, among which pinnites are also seen. At a 

 great distance from the sea, on the banks of the Bouik, the 

 Reoute, the Koula, and other rivers, this limestone is covered 

 with soft marls containing crystals of selenite. From the line of 

 Brender to Boudjak, immediately over the sand, lies a trans- 

 ported limestone (Calcaire meuble), composed almost entirely 

 of shells, and more or less mixed with iron ochre. Large beds 

 of oolitic limestone form the distinctive character qfthisforma^ 

 tion which lies above the cludk, and to which geologists give the 

 name of tertiary, although frequently the oolite limestone pre^ 

 sents itself under that of Jura limestone, as one oftJie priticipal 



