SOURCE OP ST. Peter's river. 207 



cal characters to connect itself with the Lias of England, 

 and more particularly with that variety so well known in 

 France and Germany under the name of Calcaire coqiiilUer, 

 (muschel kalk of Werner,) which constitutes, as is well 

 known, the upper bed of what was formerly termed the 

 Jura limestone ; and which is inferior to the great oolitic 

 series of England, of which it forms as it were the founda- 

 tion. This oolitic series must not be considered as in- 

 cluding the oolites which have been occasionally observed 

 in the Jura limestone of the French, the zechstebi of the 

 Germans, and the magnesian limestone of England. In all 

 these instances the oolite forms but a partial and probably an 

 accidental deposite in a limestone, which is certainly inferior 

 to the variegated ( Bunt) sandstone, or new red sandstone for- 

 mation. We have in this account of the western limestones 

 studiously avoided, until this time, introducing the terms of 

 Alpine and Jura limestones, and comparing them together, 

 as it appears to us well established that the greatest confu- 

 sion has prevailed from the indiscriminate application of 

 these words. The truth of this will be acknowledged b}- 

 those who recollect that, by some geologists, the two names 

 have been used to indicate the same limestone, (at least in 

 certain cases.) while some have removed almost all the 

 Alpine limestone into the transition formations, and others 

 have extended the Jura limestone to make it include the 

 muschel kalk of Germany, which we have good grounds 

 for considering as coeval with the Lias of England. It will, 

 doubtless, be observed by those who have made a particu- 

 lar study of the limestone formations to which we have al- 

 luded, that there are some apparent contradictions in our 

 statement. That for instance, the asche and the oolite ob- 

 served on the Mississippi cannot be considered as connect- 

 ed together, and with the cavernous limestone of the Was- 



