on the Muschelkalk, Sfe. 315 



which now occupies us. An immense quantity of shells, 

 partly broken, and partly well preserved, but strongly ad- 

 hering to the stone (entrochi, turbinites, strombites, mytul- 

 ites) is accumulated in many strata from 20 to 25 milli- 

 metres (about 1 in.) thick, which occur in the muschelkalk. 

 Many species occur united in families (belemnites, terebra- 

 tulites. chamites). Between these very shelly strata are 

 disseminated ammonites, turbinites, some terebratulites, with 

 their nacreous shells, the Gryphaea cymbium, and superb 

 pentacrinites. Corals, echinites, and pectinites are rare. 

 From the abundance of entrochi in the muschelkalk, this 

 formation has received the name of entrochite limestone 

 (trochitenkalk) in some parts of Germany. As a bed of 

 entrochi often also characterizes the zechstein, and separates 

 it from the coal measures, this name may lead us to confound 

 two very distinct formations. The denomination of gryphite 

 limestone (calaire a gryphites of the zechstein and of the 

 oolite formation) and all those which allude to fossils, with-; 

 out indicating the species, expose us to the same danger. 

 It is stated that the muschelkalk contains the bones of large 

 animals (oviparous ? quadrupeds, Friesleben, T. 1, p. 74; 

 T. iv, p. 24, 305) and birds (ornitholithes of the Heimberg ; 

 Blumenbach, Naturgesch; 3"^- Aufl. p. 663); but these 

 bones may belong, as also the teeth of fish, to the breccias 

 and marls resting on the muschelkalk. 



Messrs. Buckland and Conybeare, during their tour in Ger- 

 many, considered the muschelkalk of Werner as identical 

 with the lias. I am inclined to think that there is rather a 

 parallelism than an identity of formation. The muschel- 

 kalk occupies the same place as the lias, it equally abounds 

 in ammonites, terebratulas, and encrinites ; but the fossil 

 species differ, and its structure is much more simple and uni- 

 form. The muschelkalk strata are not separated by the 

 blue clays which abound in the lias. The middle strata of 

 the latter possess a dull compact and even fracture, much 

 more resembling the lithographic varieties of the oohte 

 formation than the muschelkalk of Gottingen, Jena, and 

 Eichsfeld, M. Boue has recongnised the muschelkalk in 



