4 GEOLOGICAL MEMOIRS. 



On Fossil Alg^ of the Vienna and Caepathian Sandstones. 

 By Professor von Eitingshausen. 

 [Proceed. Imp. Acad. Yienna, Dec. 17, 1863.] 

 Since Count Sternberg's time (1820) these Algae have not been 

 made the object of special investigation. Their variations in form and 

 in the development of the thallus are as numerous and diversified as 

 they are in existing Algce, and consequently many forms hitherto 

 accepted as distinct species are in fact but varieties of a very limited 

 number of real species. It may be inferred from the condition and 

 mode of preservation of these vegetable remains that the strata 

 containing them must have been deposited at a short distance from 

 the sea-shore, in shallow and well-protected bays and lagoons 

 whose quiet waters offered conditions favourable to the accumula- 

 tion of Algce. [Coitnt M.] 



On the CoAL-DEPOsiTS in the Alpine Eegions of Lower Austria. 

 By Herr D. Stue. 

 [Proceed. Imp. Greol. lustit. Vienna, Jmie 16, 1863.] 

 By a careful investigation of the fossil flora of the carboniferous 

 sandstones of the North-eastern Alps, M. Stur has found that these 

 sandstones form two distinct groups of very different geological ages. 

 One group, characterized by the occurrence of Equisetites columnmns, 

 is of Lower Keuper age ; the other, the flora of which is identical 

 with that of Fiinfkirchen (Hungary), is equivalent to the Liassic 

 Sandstone, the " Gnesten strata" of the Austrian geologists. The 

 Keuper Sandstones rest on dark-coloured slates with Ammonites Aon, 

 overlying black (" Guttenstein") limestone resting on "Werfen Slates ; 

 and it is overlain by a stratum very rich in organic remains, which, 

 however, are not easily obtainable well enough preserved for specific 

 deternjination. These fossils belong to the genera Oorbula, Perna, and 

 Mycphoria, and may therefore be considered as representing the Eaibl 

 strata, although Myophoria Kefersteini, the truly characteristic form 

 of this horizon, has not yet been identified among them. The Liassic 

 sandstone rests immediately on Kdssen (Rhsetic) strata. Immediately 

 above it, in a stratum of at most three feet in thickness, are found 

 nu.merous Gnesten fossils, namely, Gryphcea arcuata, G. cymhium, 

 Bhynchonella Austriaca, Pleuromya unionides, &e. The interval 

 between the Kossen beds and the supposed Eaibl strata is occupied 

 by the Great Dolomite. Over the Lias-sandstones are found in as- 

 cending order: (1) Variegated Marls, (2) Vils and Klauss strata, 

 (3) Jm'assic Aptychus-limestones with Terebrattda dijphya, and (4) 

 a sandstone with intercalated layers of coarse conglomerates with 

 Orbitolites (?). The large granitic blocks around Waidhopen (perhaps 

 also the huge one in the " Pechgraben," selected as a monument to 

 Leopold von Buch) belong to this conglomerate. Terebratida diphya 

 lias lately been discovered, associated with Ammonites, by Dr. Made- 

 lung in the Ips valley, in a red and white limestone overlying the 

 Klauss strata. [Count M.] 



