132 ROMER’S DESCRIPTION OF THE CHALK 
sand here forms seams from 1 to 2 feet thick at the upper part, 
and from 3 to 4 feet below. The upper beds consist of a very argil- 
laceous yellowish-gray compact calcareous marl, with little sili- 
cate of iron; the lower layers gradually lose the lime, and acquire 
much sand and much silicate of iron, become of a dark green 
colour, crumble very much by exposure to the air, and some- 
times contain chalcedony and concretions of flint; the oldest 
strata contain large boulders of flint, clay-slate and sandstone. 
The following fossils occur here:— 
Terebratula biplicata. Ammonites falcatus. 
Ostrea serrata. Nautilus simplex. 
Holaster subglobosus. ... elegans. 
Ammonites varians. Inoceramus concentricus (?). 
To the east of the place last mentioned, the greensand may 
be traced under similar conditions, on the northern side of the 
Hard to Erwitte; and on the southern side, across Neheim, 
Mulheim and Belecke, to Riithen. 
The greensand exposed by the railroad cutting at Oberau, 
near Dresden, is perfectly similar to that above described. Here 
a dark grayish-green sandy marl, in which are diffused numerous 
blackish-green granules of silicate of iron, lies beneath the gray 
chalk: these granules increase in quantity in the lower portions ; 
and the stone gradually contains a large number of fragments of 
decomposed granite or gneiss, so as to become a true conglome- 
rate. It rests immediately upon the mass of gneiss, or is sepa- 
rated from it only by a small layer of a grayish-white decomposed 
sandstone, which abounds in organic remains. This formation 
contains among other fossils,—Terebratula ovoides (?), T. bipli- 
cata, Ostrea carinata, Pecten notabilis, and Spherulites; and it 
has been observed under perfectly similar conditions in Elb- 
stollen (?). / 
The glauconitic stone which occurs on the Waterlappe and at 
Oberau likewise perfectly resembles the firestone from Hand-— 
fast Point in Dorsetshire, England; as we have convinced our- 
selves by the examination of specimens. 
According to the above descriptions, we are still left in doubt, 
whether the banded marl (flammen-mergel), or the greensand is 
the older formation of the two: but the neighbourhood of Goslar 
settles this point most satisfactorily, the layers between the chalk- 
marl and the lower greensand being entirely exposed to view both 
