﻿Revieics — IIeer''s Primceval World of Stoitzerland. 81 



" In Switzerland no fossil remains of the Permian period have 

 been preserved, although some of the Swiss rock-masses probably 

 belong to this epoch." The Muschelkalk, with its salt-deposits, is 

 met with on the left bank of the Ehine extending from Eyburg 

 (near Rheinfelden) to Basle. Borings at Schweizerhall, between 

 Basle and Augst, revealed a deposit of rock-salt 30 feet thick at 

 a depth of 420 feet. At Rheinfelden it is probably 60 feet in 

 thickness. 



At Salzburg and Berchtesgaden the salt is mined dry by means of 

 numerous horizontal workings ; but at Rheinfelden, Schweizerhall, 

 Augst and Ryburg the wet method is adopted. Water is conducted 

 through the salt and is then pumped out and evaporated ; in this 

 way about 590,000 cwt. of salt are produced annually. Salt works 

 also exist at Bex in the Canton de Vaud. 



Good figures of the characteristic fossils of the Muschelkalk, e.g. 

 Ceratites nodosus, Nautilus hidorsatus, Encrinus liliiformis, PempMx 

 Sueur a, etc., are given. This is the case with each formation described 

 throughout this work. 



In the Keuper of Basle, we meet with those gigantic Horse-tails 

 (Equisetum arenaceum) , which for size might fairly rival some of the 

 Calamites of the Coal Period. A very effective coloured plate, 

 illustrative of the Flora of the Keuper period, with its Tree-ferns, 

 Voltzias, and Equisetacece, deserves to be specially noticed. 



From the Keuper Period of Basle we pass to the Liassic formation 

 of Schambelen in the Canton Aargau, and here, as also in the suc- 

 ceeding Jurassic Period, Prof. Heer unfolds before us the rich 

 treasures of the sea with its Ammonites, its Pentacrinites, its Star- 

 fishes and shells, its Shrimps and Lobsters and fishes with 

 enamelled scales. 



The Lias is rich in fossil forms, but the Jura is even richer still ; 

 for besides abundance of marine organisms, we have a most 

 interesting revelation of the contempoi'ary terrestrial fauna and 

 flora preserved to us. The Swiss in his inland valley is far from 

 the shores of the ocean of to-day, yet he resides in a vast marine 

 bay left dry by the retiring waters ; and the rocky walls around him 

 were once great Coral-reefs, within whose shelter lived and died 

 Fishes and Mollnsca, Echinoderms and Crustacea without number, 

 and upon whose dry and higher island summits once grew the 

 Zamia and the Palm-tree, whilst, fearless of aldermen, the Turtles 

 and the Lizards laid their eggs or rested peacefully upon its beaches. 

 If then it be a pleasure to wander along the sea-coast, gathering 

 the productions of the sea left at our feet by the retiring tide, how 

 great must be our interest and surprise as we wander among the 

 Swiss mountains to gather the relics of the fauna of the sea-shores 

 of a primgeval world ! 



But the geologist can do more than this ; for without dredge or 

 diver's aid he can study each zone of life in this ancient sea from its 

 shore-line with Patellas and Purpuras, Xeritas and Mytili, down to 

 the 100-fathom line, each depth marked by its special residents, its 



DECADE II. VOL. IV. — NO. II. 6 



