Notices of Memoirs — CapeUini — Congeria Beds of Italy. 271 



I contend — with all due deference — is merely hypothetical, inasmuch 

 as it can nowhere be proved to exist. It, moreover, indicates no 

 age whatever, beyond being placed in the published section in the 

 Quarterly Journal ^ beneath the Chillesford Clay and jSTorwich Crag ; 

 which order of superposition can be demonstrated to be entirely 

 erroneous ! Consequently, it is not only desirable, but clearly im- 

 perative that a diiferent classification and nomenclature should be 

 adopted. 



I therefore propose the following triple subdivision: viz. "the 

 Eootlet-bed, " with its associated freshwater beds, the " Chillesford 

 Clay," and the "Norwich Crag." And if it is considered desirable 

 to have a connected series — owing to the very intimate relation of the 

 beds, and the comparatively short period of time involved — I would 

 suggest that the term "Mammalian or Norwich Crag Series" should 

 be adopted, to embrace the three subdivisions above mentioned. This 

 simple classification, I contend, accords with the facts observed, 

 and the nomenclature suggested is amply sufficient, in my opinion, 

 to denote the whole of the remarkable pre-glacial deposits referred to ; 

 which together are seldom to be seen anywhere around the coast in 

 direct superposition, more than about 15 feet in thickness. 



11. — The Congeria Beds in Italv.^ 



THE Congeria beds were shown to exist in Tuscany, in 1860, by 

 Professor Capellini, and since then both Professor C Mayer and 

 Professor Fuchs have called attention to their appearance in various 

 parts of Italy, and much has been written upon it during the last 

 few years as bearing upon the question as to where the division 

 between Miocene and Pliocene should be made in Italy. 



The Congeria beds were already many years ago compared with 

 those in the Wallachia and the Crimea, and now the same strata are 

 shown to exist from Bollene (S. France), through Italy, Austria, 

 Hungary, and the south of Eussia. These sulphur-gypsum beds or 

 Congeria strata on both sides of the Apennines are now shown to 

 contain similar fossils, and the formation as found near Leghorn, 

 Ancona, and Bologna, is directly compared, and it is shown to be 

 analogous with that of the Piedmont Modenese, Eeggiano, and 

 Sicily, and to represent the " Schlier " of the Vienna geologists, 

 the marl of Wielicska and Wallachia, and perhaps in part the marl 

 of Boom (Belgium), and the exact correspondence between the 

 gypsum of Tuscany and that of the Eomagne and the Marche, long 

 known for its fossil flora, is now fully confirmed by means of the 

 fossil fauna. Although the fossils distinctly prove the identical age, 

 yet in almost each locality there are some found not common in 

 others, and this is found to be the case in the Congeria beds of 

 the neighbourhood of Castellina Marittima and the Aconitano. 



' Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc. vol. xxxii. p. 124. 



2 Gli Strati a Congerie e le marne coinpatte mioceniche dei dintomi di Ancona. 

 By Professore Giovanni CapeUini, Mem. Accad. Lincei, ser. 3a. vol iii. 1879. 



Gli strati a Congerie e la formazione gessoso-solfifera nella provincia di I'isa e nei 

 dintomi di Livorno. G, Capellini, Mem. Accad. dei Lincei, ser. 3, vol. 1880. 



