﻿GIEBEL ON THE NUMMTJLITE FORMATION. 117 



According to Ewalcl's statements, made at the Meeting of Italian 

 Geologists at Venice, the Nummulitic Sandstone covers the Macigno, 

 and both are only different aspects of the same formation ; the Num- 

 mulite-limestone generally, however, being divided into three zones. 

 Of these, the oldest, in Provence, belongs to the Chalk-formation, and 

 contains globular Nummulites. The second, regarded as the Num- 

 mulite-formation proper, is to be paralleled with the Eocene beds, and 

 contains lenticular Nummulites. Lastly, the third zone overlies the 

 Macigno and is of Miocene age. These general observations of M. 

 Ewald agree with those of all other geologists, at least as regards the 

 localities where they were made. 



Near Gmmiden, on the Traun, Zeuschner found fossils in the sandy 

 Nummulite-rocks similar to those of the Kressenberg, which is re- 

 garded by Ewald as of the Nummulite-formation proper ; and Rost- 

 horn discovered in Istria a grey sandstone, similar to the Gosau for- 

 mation*, both resting upon and covered by nummulitic strata. 



Tallavignes also distinguishes in the Corbieres both an Eocene 

 Nummulite-rock, and one belonging to the Chalk and resting on Hip- 

 purite-beds. The former he terms the Systeme Iberien, and the 

 latter the Systeme Alaricien ; and transfers the date of the elevation 

 of the Pyrenees to the period between the two. This division into 

 an ante-pyrenaic and a post-pyrenaic formation is accepted by Elie 

 de Beaumont, without his admitting the parallelism of contempora- 

 neous beds. 



In the Asturias the Nummulite-rock lies on a limestone with Spa- 

 tangi, belonging to the chalk-formation, which contains mistaken 

 Orbitulites, according to Verneuil, who met with nummulitic beds 

 only where other eocene strata are wanting above the Chalk, and who 

 rejects, as unfounded, the statements of Pilla, Catullo, and Pasini, 

 respecting the co-occurrence of Hippurites and Nummulites. 



Near Teschen [Silesia], Hohenegger collected Nummulites, distin- 

 guished by an open spire, in beds characterized by Neocomian Am- 

 monites, Hamites, and Scaphites ; according to which, as Ewald 

 observes, the Nummulites of the Carpathians are apparently still older. 

 The peculiar Nummulites in question do not, however, permit of an 

 identification of the beds to which they belong with other [true] 

 nummulitic rocks, but they will share the fate of Morton's Alabama 

 Nummulites, which D'Orbigny has placed in the genus Orbitoides, 

 and the geological relations of which have been reported upon by 

 Lyell. 



Researches on the structure of the strata at Karst, near Trieste, 

 gave Kaiser f an insight into the fact that the nummulitic beds had 

 been deposited at an earlier period than the local sandstone, and 

 that the latter had been developed gradually at the expense of the 

 former. 



* [Compare Von Hauer's observations on the absence of true Nummulites, and 

 the presence of Orbitulites {Orbitoides) in beds of the Gosau formation, Quart. 

 Journ. Geol. Soc. vol. vii. Part 2. (Miscell.), p. 85 et seq. — Transl.] 



t [See F. Kaiser " On the Geology of the Vicinity of Trieste," loc. cit. p. 35 et 

 seq.— Transl.] 



L 2 



