292 PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. [Feb. 22, 



Brown-coal beds, existing in numerous localities on the frontiers of 

 Saxony and Bohemia. I am unable, however, to give any details of 

 it ; but its existence is worth mentioning in connection vrith the beds 

 to which we must now allude. 



VI. At Westeregeln, in the neighbourhood of Magdeburg, an 

 interesting tertiary formation exists, abounding in fossils, which is now 

 beginning to attract considerable attention. It is of peculiar import- 

 ance with reference to the correct position of the Mayence basin, 

 inasmuch as its exact relation to this formation appears from Dr. 

 Sandberger's statements to have been satisfactorily made out. These 

 sands or sandstones of "Westeregeln are paralleled with the Septaria- 

 clay of Celle, Berlin, and Mecklenburg. It is said to overlie the 

 Brown-coal formation of the Westerwald, which is itself the upper- 

 most of the two Brown-coal formations of the Mayence basin. It 

 forms a portion of those tertiary formations which extend through 

 Northern Germany, from the confines of Holland and Belgium, on 

 the west, to the Oder, on the east, and the fossils of which are now in 

 the course of publication by Dr. Beyrich of Berlin. It is a portion 

 of the same great oceanic deposit which has been already observed in 

 the vicinity of Cassel, although the exact parallehsms of age have 

 not yet been fully worked out ; but the general resemblance of the 

 Cassel beds to those of Weinheim is sufficiently clear from the fol- 

 lowing extract of a private communication which I have received from 

 Dr. F. Sandberger : — 



"At Cassel I observed the following section, in descending order. 

 1st. Cassel marine beds. 2nd. Clay with calcareous nodules, con- 

 taining the same fossils as the Wiesbaden beds. 3rd. Quartzose 

 sandstones, occasionally containing leaves not yet made out. 4th. 

 Brown-coal deposits separated by layers of clay. 5th. As the basis 

 of the whole deposit, and immediately resting on the Muschelkalk, a 

 bed of clay, containing the characteristic fossUs of the Cyrena-marls " 

 (the lower blue clay of Weinheim) . 



The following list will give some idea of the fossil contents of the 

 Westeregeln beds. I have received it from Dr. Sandberger, and it 

 must be understood as only giving those species which he has already- 

 received ; I believe it, however, to be nearly complete. 



Table VII. 



List of Fossils from the Magdeburg Sands hitherto received by 

 Dr. Sandberger. 



(Those marked with an asterisk * occur in the Weinheim beds.) 



*Teredo, sp. Astarte Henkeliuslana, Nyst. 



Teredina Hoffmanni, Phil. vetula, Phil. 



*Corbiila striata, Lam. , sp. (aif. J. gracilis, Miinst.) 



* pisum, Sow. Diplodonta apicalis, Phil. 



Henkeliusiana, Nyst. Cardium porulosum, Brand. 



TelUna donacialis, Lam. * tenuisulcatum, Nyst. 



