Dr. Wheelton Hind — The Culm ofW. Germany. 



469 



those of the various Culm beds of Western Germany, a very definite 

 and normal succession of zonal sequence can be made out. The 

 fauna of the Culm, as exhibited in the Museum of the Geological 

 Department of the University of Marburg, is typically that of the 

 Pendleside Series and Culm of Great Britain ; all the important 

 zonal Cephalopoda are present, and I consider in normal succession. 



It is practically unthinkable that similar successions of Cephalopod 

 forms could be evolved at two distinct periods of geological time, 

 whicli the view of the Tournaisian age of the Culm of "Western 

 Germany would necessitate. It is known that in Belgium and Great 

 Britain the Pendleside or Culm fauna is always post-Visean, and 

 consequently the presence of the typical fauna in Germany determines 

 the age of the German Culm to be also post-Visean. 



In Great Britain the faunal sequence which succeeds the Visean 

 subdivision of the Carboniferous Limestone is as follows : — 



Zone of Gastrioceras Listeri ...... Millstone Grit. 



Zone of Gtyphioceras bilingue ...... Millstone Grit. 



Zone of Gl. spirale and Gl. diadema .... 



Zone of Gl. reticiilatum (maximum) .... 



Zone of Nomismoceras rotiforme and Posidonomya Becheri . ) 

 Zone of Prolecanites com2)ressus in upper part of Ci/athaxonia -zone 



Pendleside 

 Series. 



Glyphioceras crenistria is common in the upper part of the Visean 

 or Dibiinophyllum-2.ovLQ. 



The majority of these zonal forms are found in Belgium in the same 

 sequence, and the fauna which is found in the Pendleside Series and its 

 equivalent in Belgium is a Lower Carboniferous fauna, but post- 

 Visean. 



In Germany the Culm beds lie on a diabase of Upper Devonian 

 age, intrusive into the Clymenia beds, a sequence practically identical 

 with that which obtains in North Devon. The lowest Culm fauna is 

 obtained fi'om lenticular patches of limestone at Breitscheid, and 

 German authorities are agreed that this is the case. The following 

 fauna has been obtained at Breitscheid : — 



Prolecanites coinpressus. 

 Glyphioceras crenistria. 

 G. mntabile. 

 Pericyclus virgatus. 

 Brancocerait ornatissimum . 



Trincoceras hibernicum. 

 Dimorphoceras Gilbertsoni. 

 Orthoceras sealare. 

 Orthoceras cf. salviim, de Kon. 

 Corals. 



This is a fauna which is distinctly characteristic of the highest 

 Visean or Dibiinophyllum horizon of Great Britain and Ireland, and 

 contains the type or zone fossil of the passage beds between the 

 Dibmiophyllum-zone and the Pendleside Series. I am informed 

 that a similar fauna has been found at Erdbach and Liebstein, 

 but the beds are very local and not persistent, and are often entirely 

 absent. 



The so-called ' Mittel Kulm ' is much more fossiliferous, and 

 perhaps the best exposure is at Herborn, the fauna of which has 

 been described by v. Koenen (" Die Kulmfauna von Herborn " : Neuen 

 Jahrebuch fiir Min., Geol., u. Pal., 1879, p. 311). At Herborn 

 the series consists of calcareous shales, the ' Posidonien Schiefer', 



