S14 M. VON Humboldt 



Messrs. de Beaumont and Boue have recognised it round the 

 Vosges chain. The muschelkalk generally possesses pale, 

 •whitish, grey or yellow tints : its fracture is compact and 

 dull, but the mixture of small laminae of calcareous spar, 

 arising perhaps from fossil remains, sometimes renders it 

 granular and brilliant. Many beds are marly, arenaceous, 

 or passing into the oolite structure. (Seeberg near Gotha ; 

 Weper near Gottingen ; Preussisch-Minden ; Hildesheim. 

 Chert (hornstein) passing into flint and jasper (Dransfeld, 

 Kandern, Saarbriick), are~eithei disseminated in nodules 

 in the muschelkalk, or form beds of small continuity. The 

 inferior strata of this formation alternate with the new red 

 sandstone (between Bennstedt and Kelme), or insensibly 

 pass into the sandstone, by becoming charged with sand, 

 clay, and eren (to the E. of Cobourg) with magnesia (mag- 

 nesian beds of the muschelkalk). 



Subordinate beds. The Marls and clays so frequent in 

 the oolite formation, the new red sandstone, and the zech- 

 stein (magnesian limestone) are rare in the muschelkalk. In 

 Germany, this rock contains hydrate of iron, a little fibrous 

 gypsum (Sulzbourg near Naumbourg), and coal (letten- 

 kohle of Voigt ; at Mattstedt and Eckardsberg near Wei- 

 mar) mixed with aluminous schist and carbonized fruits 

 (coniferaB ?). The nearer coal is found to the tertiary for- 

 mationr., the more do at least some of its strata approach the 

 state of lignite and aluminous earth. 



Fossils. From the researches of M. von Schlotheim, and 

 rejecting the beds which do not belong to the muschelkalk, 

 the fossils are : Chamites striatus, Belemnites paxillosus. 

 Ammonites amalteus, A. nodosus, A. angulatus, A. papyra- 

 ceus, Nautilites binodatus, Buccinites gregarius, Trochilites 

 la;vis, Turbinites cerithius, Myacites ventricosus, Pectinites 

 reticuiatus, Ostracites spondyloides, Terebratulites fragilis, 

 T. vulgaris, Gryphites cymhium, G. suillus, Mytulites socia- 

 lis, Pentacrinites vulgaris, Encrinites liliiformis, &c. Some 

 isolated beds of the oolite formation perhaps contain more 

 •fossils than the muschelkalk ; but in no secondary forma- 

 tion do organic remains so uniformly abound as in that 



