368 Geological Society. 



gives an account of the limestone caves in Wellington Valley, 

 and of the bones of quadiupeds, which occur in clefts or cavities con- 

 tiguous to them. Some of these bones, which were procured on the 

 surface, have experienced little or no change, whilst others inclosed 

 in the breccia, are very much in the state of those found at Gibraltar. 

 The examination the bones have undergone since their arrival in 

 Europe shows that, though belonging chiefly to the Marsupial tribes, 

 abounding in that country, there are also remains resembling those 

 of a cetaceous animal, and of the elephant and rliinoceros. If the 

 presence of the bones of these great mammalia be well established, 

 changes must have occurred in the distribution of animals in New 

 Holland, analogous to those which have taken place in other quar- 

 ters of the globe. 



In the absence of better information, I endeavoured to lay before 

 you, in a synoptical form, the knowledge 1 had acquired during 

 various journeys, of the nature of the dili'erent sedimentary deposits of 

 central and north-eastern Germany. In this sketch, the systems of 

 todte-liegende, zechstein, kupfer-schiefer, &c., were rapidly passed 

 over, as I considered them to have been already correctly identified, by 

 Professor Sedgwick, with the magnesian limestone series of England. 

 The muschelkalk was sliown to be a great calcareous formation in the 

 middle of the new red sandstone, having the hunter sandstein below, and 

 the keuper red sandstone and marl above it ; and the organic remains 

 of this tripartite group were shown to possess a common family charac- 

 ter. Banz-on- the. Maine was instanced, as well meriting to be visited 

 by English geologists, because it offers a true lias shale and limestone, 

 (abounding in all the species of Ichthyosauri* known in Dorsetshire) 

 capped by the sands of the inferior oolite ; thus presenting a strong re- 

 semblance, both in order of position and zoological character, to these 

 formations in England. The gorge called the Porta Westphalica, 

 previously described by Hausniann, was cited, as offering a clear 

 and instructive section of nearly the whole of the oolitic series from 

 the lias upwards; and it was mentioned that here, as in many other 

 places, the inferior oolite has the same arenaceous type which 

 distinguishes it throughout so great a part of its range in the Bri- 

 tish Isles f. 



The Jura limestone and dolomite of Franconia, occupying the 

 place of our middle oolites, was shown to be overlaid by the Solen- 

 hofen slate, so well known in lithography, and so rich in organic 

 remains j and its age was proved to be coeval with the upper 



the accomplishment of which he promises to devote much of his time to 

 the examination of the geological structure of those districts. 



* Of the Ichthyosauri at Banz, the /. tenuirostris is by far the most 

 abundant, whilst the /. communis, so common at Lyme, is very rare. There 

 are also two species of Pterodactyli at Banz, one of which is the P. Ma- 

 cronyx of the English lias; the other is a new species. I believe it is the 

 intention of M. Theodori to publish engravings and descriptions of thefe 

 fossils. 



f Yorkshire, Brora, the Hebrides, &c. See Geol. Trans. 2nd series, 

 vol. it. pp. 293, 353; also Conybeare and Phillips's Outlines of Geology, 

 &c. 



part 



