116 ROMER’S DESCRIPTION OF THE CHALK 
present treatise passed over this formation in silence; and may 
refer to my earlier investigations respecting it*. 
Premising that two divisions only of the cretaceous series,—an 
upper calcareous, and an inferior or sandy division,—have hither- 
to been distinguished in Germany, we shall now consider more 
closely the several deposits, beginning with the most recent. 
I. Toe Upper Cuatx:—Chalk. [Die obere kreide—Craie. | 
In those districts where the chalk formation was first recog- 
nised and described as an independent group, it was its upper 
member, the white chalk, which, from its dazzling colour, from 
the purity of the stone and from the alternating seams of flint, 
must have attracted the special attention of the geologist. It is 
everywhere readily recognised by these mineralogical characters ; 
and from it all the deposits older than the Eocene and younger 
than the Weald-clay, have been called the “chalk formation” 
(formation créiacée :—kreide-gebirge). 
It has been observed in England that seams of flint occur 
only in the upper portion of the white chalk, and that the 
inferior layers of chalk gradually lose their purity and colour; 
on this account the chalk with flints has been distinguished 
from that without flints ; a distinction which, we shall find, is 
in some measure justified by the palzontological characters. 
Hitherto the white chalk only has been considered as the 
upper member of the chalk formation; and several deposits 
which present a different mineralogical character have been con- 
sidered, owing to a neglect of their organic contents, some as 
more recent, others as older, which nevertheless the fossils which 
they contain decidedly prove to be of the same age. This remark 
applies especially to the formation of Petersberg near Maestricht, 
with the heights around Falconberg (Fauquemont) ; and to se- 
veral sandy marls, sandstones and conglomerates which occur to 
the north of the Hartz mountains, and in Silesia: these several 
formations we shall now describe singly and more in detail. 
1. Upper Chalk :—Chalk with flints—flinty chalk—part of the 
white chalk. [Obere weisse kreide:—part of the Craie blanche.] 
This consists of a regularly stratified deposit, 500 feet in thick- 
* “Fossils of the Oolitic Formation in the North of Germany,” with 10 
plates. Hanover, 4to, 1836. 
