Geological Society. 369 



part of the oolitic series, by sections on the Danube, marking 

 its passage beneath the green sand. Various districts, chiefly in 

 Hanover and Westphalia, were described as consisting of a lower 

 green sand {quader sanchtein), an upper green sand {planer kalk), 

 and true chalk ; and the memoir terminated with an account of 

 one of the most remarkable of the numerous tertiary formations of 

 Germany. It is a deposit of lacustrine limestone and bone breccia, 

 covering the tops of the undulating hillocks of keuper red sand- 

 stone, in the plains south of Roth and Nuremberg, and near the villages 

 of George's and Frederich's Gemund. In the breccia, Palasotheriaand 

 Anoplotheria, identical in species with those of the Paris basin, 

 are associated with the Mastodon of Auvergne, the Rhinoceros in- 

 cisivus and ptjgmcEus, with remains of the bear, the stag, the horse, the 

 fox, a new genus of Carnivora, and other undescribed animals *. 

 The associated limestone being finely laminated and charged with de- 

 licate and well preserved freshwater and land shells, seems to indicate 

 a long period of accumulation, during which, certain animals hitherto 

 considered to have been peculiar to an ancient tertiary age, appear 

 to have been co-existent with species nearly analogous to the pre- 

 sent races. 



This sketch was prepared, principally, with the view of directing the 

 attention of English geologists to the structure of countries simi- 

 lar to their own ; some of which have been described by native 

 authors of great merit, whose works ought to become familiar to us 

 all : for it is indeed of high interest to observe the astonishing pro- 

 gress, which our German fellow-labourers have made within the last 

 few years in the study of fossil zoology. In alluding to the necessity 

 of cultivating a more intimate acquaintance with the works of 

 German authors on geology, I may be allowed to say, that this 

 Society conferred a most appropriate honour, when it added to its 

 list the name of Count Miinster of Bayreuth ; who, though isolated 

 and unassisted, has by spirited exertions augmented his collection of 

 fossils to the extraordinary number of five thousand species, and who 

 has detected in the limestone of Franconia nearly all the characteristic 

 Ammonites, and many other shells of the English oolites. His 

 original communications, explanatory of a vast number of new 

 fossils, of which I will here mention only three species of Ptero- 

 dactyli, can be known only by consulting various German and 

 French periodical publications. The splendid work of Professor 

 Goldfuss, of the University of Bonn, to which Count Miinster has 

 also contributed so largely, deserves, on this occasion, a special 

 notice ; for though not yet sufficiently known in England, it may 

 safely be pronounced to be the most comprehensive and instructive 



• When this memoir was read, I was unacquainted with the prior obser- 

 vations of M. Von Meyer of Frankfort, upon these osseous remains (see 

 Karsten's Archiv. vol. vii. |i. 181); and it is with great pleasure I now 

 learn from Count Miinster, that the same ingenious naturalist is occupied 

 in preparing a complete monograph of tlie whole of the contents ol this 

 deposit. 



N. S. Vol. 1 1 . No. Gfi. May ib32. 3 B description 



