466 HISTORY OF GEOLOGY AND PALEONTOLOGY. 



Bronn regarded the middle Alpine limestone as Jurassic or 

 Liassic. In comparison with these indefinite surmises regarding 

 the age of Alpine limestone deposits, the secure identification of 

 Muschelkalk in the neighbourhood of Recoaro and Rovegliano 

 by Maraschini (1822), Catullo (1827), and Murchison makes a 

 refreshing impression. 



The discovery of the wonderfully rich fossil locality of 

 St. Cassian in South Tyrol proved a turning-point in the 

 history of Alpine geology. Leopold von Buch had brought 

 St. Cassian fossils with him from one of his journeys in the 

 Dolomites, and he sent them to Count Minister for identi- 

 fication. In 1834 Count Minister published in the Neues 

 Jahrbuch the description of a large collection of St. Cassian 

 fossils, most of which had been sent to him by Lommel. 

 Of one hundred and twenty-eight species, Minister thought he 

 could identify seven as Muschelkalk species, two as Liassic, 

 and six as Jurassic. Miinster's famous work published in 

 1841, entitled Beitriige zur Petrefaktenkunde, is a monograph 

 of the St. Cassian fauna. The investigation of four hundred and 

 twenty-two species of Mollusca, Brachiopods, Echinoderms, 

 Corals and Sponges by Count Miinster led him to conclude that 

 twelve of the St. Cassian species also occurred in the Carbon- 

 iferous limestone and Zechstein, ten in the Muschelkalk, eleven 

 in the Liassic, and three in the Jurassic rocks; of these so-called 

 "common species" thirteen are said to be actually identical, 

 the others analogous. Count Miinster could not ascertain any 

 definite palseontological sequence that would harmonise with 

 the stratigraphical succession then commonly accepted for the 

 Tyrol. 



Miinster's palaeontological work contained an introductory 

 geological part written by H. L. Wissmann. The succession 

 of the strata between St. Lorenzen and St. Cassian and at 

 the northern side of the Schlern Mountain was described by 

 Wissmann. He called the red sandstone and the shaly and 

 calcareous strata immediately above the Botzen Porphyry Sets 

 strata, from the name of a village Seis at the base of Schlern 

 Mountain, and explained them as identical with the " Werfen 

 Strata" which had been described in North Tyrol. Leopold 

 von Buch had previously identified the red sandstones of this 

 group with the " Bunter Sandstones" of Germany, and the shaly 

 and calcareous strata with the "Wellenkalk" or lower horizon of 

 Muschelkalk in Germany. The "Seis Strata" are as a rule sue- 



