August 9, 1877] 



NA TURE 



283 



thickening, fault, slip, or flexure cut through by the arti- 

 ficial channel was measured and noted by him, and all 

 these details are laid down on a true scale (except in one 

 unavoidable instance) in twelve carefully drawn and 

 coloured plates of sections. So far, however laborious, 

 the work done may be said to be more or less mechanical. 

 This is not the case with regard to the clear sketch- 

 sections or outline views which accompany the measured 

 lines. In these we have exhibited to us the relations in 

 which the rocks seen in the cuttings stand to those of the 

 surrounding country, and we perceive at once the eye 

 and hand of the field-geologist. 



Since 1859 Dr. Felix Karrer's name has been constantly 

 before the scientific world as that of an active member 

 of Ritter von Hauer's brilliant geological staff. His 

 researches have lain principally among the beds of the 

 Vienna Basin and their fauna. In conjunction with 

 Theodor Fuchs his papers on these and allied subjects 

 have been both numerous and valuable ; but more par- 

 ticularly has Dr. Karrer devoted himself to the study of 

 the Foraminifera which these deposits yield in such abun- 

 dance, and now it may be said that he fitly succeeds to the 

 honourable place so long held by the late Dr. A. E. von 

 Reuss as one of the leading Rhizopodists in Central Europe. 

 Accordingly we find in the present work elaborate tabular 

 lists of the Foraminifera found in the borings and else- 

 where in the course of the engineering operations, and 

 no less than seventy-one forms figured and described as 

 new. With reference to these it will be sufficient to 

 observe that many of them are such as, according to 

 the views prevalent in England, would be scarcely held 

 to warrant specific distinction. 



The Alpine Vienna Basin, the margin of which between 

 Gloggnitz and Vienna is the region where the geology 

 has been specially worked out, was, it seems, dry land 

 at the time when the Older Mediterranean Sea covered 

 the Basin beyond the Alps. Consequently the Younger 

 Mediterranean Series, its marine sands and gravels pass- 

 ing into grits and conglomerates with intercalated bands 

 of NuUipore limestone and marls, are the lowest of the 

 Tertiary deposits present here. To this series belongs 

 the famous " Leythakalk," about which so much has been 

 written. The fauna of these beds is closely allied to that 

 of the Adriatic of the present day, whilst some of its 

 species denote a somewhat warmer sea. Upon these 

 newer Mediterranean strata rest the Sarmatian beds, 

 in three divisions, the fossils of which allow us to infer 

 a great cooling of the sea accompanied by an invasion 

 of Asiatic cold-sea forms. This was followed by a period 

 of brackish and then of fresh water, which brings us to 

 the well-known Congeria beds, above which only two 

 more members of the Tertiaries occur, viz. : the Belvedere 

 beds and the purely local but highly-interesting freshwater 

 limestone of Eichkogel, near Modling, which formed the 

 subject of Dr. Karrer's first contribution to science. 



It will be readily understood that the works entailed 

 by the construction of the watercourse promised un- 

 equalled opportunities for studying in detail the shore 

 facies of these various deposits, and comparing them with 

 the aspects they exhibit in other parts of the basin. That 

 these opportunities have not been lost this memoir affords 

 abundant proof. 



From Stixtenstein and Kaiserbrunnen to Ternitz, where 



the two head-channels meet to foim a single watercourse, 

 the rocks cut through are of much greater age. Here 

 we have carefully described by Dr. Karrer, although he 

 does not profess to do so as minutely as his more con- 

 genial tertiaries, micaschist and grau-wacke of uncertain 

 age, and, in disturbed order, the Wetterstein, Guttenstein, 

 and Werfen divisions of the Alpine trias. At Baden and 

 again at Modling, short spurs running like headlands into 

 the ancient Viennese sea, once more bring the uppermost 

 of these formations (the Wettersteinkalk) within the line 

 of section. 



At the former of the two last-mentioned places is a 

 group of well-known thermal springs ranging from 

 ordinary temperatures to 95" F. Several pages of con- 

 siderable interest are taken up by the discussion by 

 Prof. Eduard Suess of a large series of observations 

 relative to these springs carried on by Prof. Jellinek. 

 Their topographical distribution is peculiar and is 

 strikingly shown on a map (Plate xiii.) by means of 

 isothermal lines, the intervals being of 1° Reaumur from 

 S' to 13°, then one of 3° from 13° to 16°, and lastly, one 

 from 16° to 28^: that is to say, the spaces between the 

 lines of the first series represent 1° each, then 3"^, and 

 lastly 12° Reaumur. This mode of deaUng with thermal 

 phenomena by means of contour-lines is new to us and 

 seems fruitful of good results. In the present instance 

 five distinct foci of greatest heat are well made out, 

 with several outlying ones attaining lesser degrees of 

 temperature. 



The chemical composition not only of the hot springs, 

 but also of the various waters referred to throughout the 

 book, is given in numerous analyses by chemists of note. 



The line of the watercourse runs more or less 

 parallel to the Southern Railway. In 1840, when the 

 latter was in course of construction, several discoveries of 

 prehistoric implements were made at Potschach, and else- 

 where. It is therefore not surprising that the new exca- 

 vations should have given rise to similar finds. Of these 

 the most important appears to be an old burial-ground of 

 the bronze age at Leobersdorf, a little to the south of 

 Baden. Here bronze rings, daggers, armlets, &c., were 

 found associated with fairly-preserved human remains. 

 The former are described by Baron von Sacken, the 

 Director of the Imperial Collection of Antiquities, whilst 

 full details respecting the latter are furnished in an anthro- 

 pological chapter by Friedrich Steller. Both are well 

 illustrated by coloured plates and woodcuts. 



The question may perhaps be reasonably asked, why so 

 much labour and money have been expended on the 

 particular subject chosen. But when we remember the 

 losses that British geology has sustained by the neglect of 

 so many invaluable sections temporarily exposed in the 

 early canal and railway days and now covered up and 

 lost for ever, we may well regret that no devoted geologist 

 was there to preserve the minute records of the rocks 

 and their disturbances in as accurate and painstaking 

 a manner as Dr. Karrer has done in the case of 

 the Austrian V^atercourse. Given the opportunity of 

 issuing a report on so complete a scale — an opportunity 

 which we fear will never occur in England — no objection 

 can be made to his mode of setting forth his results. A 

 more condensed account would have been more readable, 

 and probably more acceptable to foreign geologists, but 



