ANNIVERSARY ADDRESS OF THE PRESIDENT. IxXXvii 



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the beautiful collection already exhibited of the fossils from the 

 tertiary basin of Vienna. The secondary strata represented in this 

 series are, in ascending order, the grauwacke beds, the Werfen and 

 Hallstadt strata, the Dachstein limestones, the Kossen, Gresten, 

 Adneth, and Hierlatz strata (to most of which I had occasion to 

 allude in my former address), the Jurassic, neocomian, Gosau, and 

 upper cretaceous formations. The ninth part of Dr. Homes' s valuable 

 work on the * Fossil Mollusca of the Vienna Tertiary Basin,' contain- 

 ing the genera Cerithium, Tui'ritella, Phasianella, Turho, Monodonttty 

 Adeorbisy Xenophora, and Trochus, with five plates, has just been 

 published. Having on a former occasion alluded to the importance 

 of this work, the true value of which had been already recognized by 

 my predecessor, I will now only observe that when completed this 

 work will be indispensable to the student of tertiary geology. 



Dr. Homes has also communicated to the Imperial Academy of 

 Science at Vienna some interesting particulars respecting the pecu- 

 liar geological position of the Hallstadt beds which occupy a fixed 

 calcareous zone along the whole line of the Alps, from Hornstein to 

 the Tyrol, and which have so long been an enigma to geologists. 

 The discovery of numerous organic remains, and their careful exa- 

 mination have shown that this formation contains a very remarkable 

 fauna, peculiar to itself, exclusively Alpine, and of which no one 

 species can be identified with non-alpine forms, although several 

 show a great resemblance to forms which in other parts of Europe 

 are characteristic of palseozoic and Jurassic formations. This is the 

 more remarkable, as both in the beds above and in those below, forms 

 occur which are identical with non-alpine forms, — e.gi Herr v. Hauer 

 has found in the grauwacke beds of Dienten, five species found in 

 other parts of Europe, and M. Siiss also points out several non- 

 alpine forms as occurring in the overlying Kossen beds. Another 

 peculiarity of this Hallstadt fauna is that the most typical species 

 show a great resemblance partly to palseozoic and partly to Jurassic 

 forms : thus the genera Holopella, Loxonema, and Porcellia are re- 

 lated to the former ; whilst the species of Phasianella, Turbo, Neri- 

 topsis, Fleurotomaritty Cirrus, and Lima have a Jurassic type. 



Thus it appears that, while in a palseontological point of view these 

 beds cannot be satisfactorily identified with any non-alpine forma- 

 tions, stratigraphical investigations have recently shown that they 

 should be considered as the equivalents of the upper trias beds of 

 the rest of Europe. These remarks appear to confirm the opinion 

 dXre&dij given by Prof. Merian. 



In further reference to this subject, the following additions to the 

 palaeontology of this district have been published in the ninth volume 

 of the Memoirs of the Mathematical and Natural History Class of the 

 Imperial Academy of Sciences at Vienna : — " On the Brachiopoda of 

 the Hallstadt beds," by Edward Siiss, with two plates ; " On the Gas- 

 teropoda and Acephala of the Hallstadt beds," with two plates, by 

 Dr. Homes; "Supplement to the knowledge of the Cephalopod 

 fauna of the Hallstadt beds," by Franz von Hauer, with five plates. 

 Respecting the discovery of these fossils by Dr. Fischer of Munich, 



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