1894.] the Gosau Beds of the Austrian Salzkammergut. 155 



up great banks or reefs of hard limestone. Hipp, cornuvaccinum 

 is the commonest and most characteristic species. Reef-building 

 Corals are extremely plentiful, especially at Nefgraben. It is 

 rather curious to notice the almost entire absence of Echinoderms, 

 which are such a characteristic feature of the Upper Cretaceous 

 rocks of North-western Europe ; also the great scarcity of Cepha- 

 lopods and Brachiopods, while Lamellibranchs and Gasteropods 

 are extremely abundant. 



As regards the exact geological horizon of these beds, no very 

 precise conclusions can be drawn on purely stratigraphical, much 

 less on lithological, grounds. But for information on this point 

 we must turn to the study of the included organic remains. 



We evidently have in the Gosau district two distinct Hippu- 

 rite limestones, a lower one characterised essentially by Hippu- 

 rites cornuvaccinum, and an upper characterised by Hipp, 

 organisans. 



Now Toucas (see " Synchronisme des Etages Turonien, Seno- 

 nien, et Danien, dans le nord et dans le midi de I'Europe," Bull. 

 Soc. Geol. Frang., Ser. 3, vol. x., pp. 200 — 202) clearly recognises 

 two distinct Hippurite zones in the South of France, the lower- 

 most of which, viz. the zone of Hipp, cornuvaccinum, he places 

 at the top of the Taronian system, while the uppermost, which 

 contains Hipp, organisans, he places at the top of the Senonian. 

 Comparing the Upper Cretaceous fossils of the South of France 

 with those of the Gosau beds, by far the larger proportion of 

 the Gosau forms are found to be Senonian, while some Turonian 

 forms also occur. Toucas concludes that the Gosau beds repre- 

 sent the whole of the Senonian of the South of France: but, 

 since it is evident that we have in the Gosau district the zone 

 of Hipp, cornuvaccinum, which, according to Toucas, is Turonian, 

 the author of the present paper feels quite justified in saying 

 that these Gosau beds are represented in the South of France 

 by Upper Cretaceous rocks from the zone of Hipp, cornuvaccinum 

 to the zone of Belemnitella inclusive. Comparing these zones 

 with those of the Paris basin, and these again with the English 

 Upper Cretaceous zones, the author concludes that the Gosau 

 beds represent, on the whole, the zones of Holaster planus, 

 Micrasters, Marsupites, and Belemnitella mucronata, i.e. from 

 the horizon of the Chalk Rock to the top of the Chalk with 

 flints inclusive ; and this conclusion is further confirmed on pa- 

 Iseontological grounds. 



Possibly the upper unfossiliferous portion of the Gosau series 

 may represent part of the so-called Danian system of North- 

 western Europe. 



The Gosau beds are on the whole of fairly shallow water 

 origin, with beds indicating Estuarine conditions near their base, 



