16 GEOLOGICAL MEMOIRS. 



Fossil Salamandrid^i: of Bohemia. By Dr. H. yon Meyer. 

 [Proceed. Imp. Geol. Instit. Vienna, March 29, 1859.] 

 M. Jokely found in the summer of 1858 in the basaltic tuff of Alt- 

 Warnsdorf (N. Bohemia) the remains of a Batrachian (belonging to 

 the Salamandridai) nearly approaching to the Triton opalinus, H. 

 v. Meyer, from Leschitz (Bohemia). The head and anterior part 

 being wanting in the Alt-Warnsdorf specimen, the generic deter- 

 mination remains still uncertain. This specimen (Tr. basalticus, H. 

 v. Meyer) differs from Triton ojpalinus by its stronger tibia3, by the 

 proportions of the vertebral and caudal processes, and by the pre- 

 sence of a tail, wanting in Tr. opalinus; and from Salamandra 

 basaltica, from Markersdorf (N. Bohemia), by the proportion of its 

 tibia and femur. The Rhenish Brown-coal yields two species of 

 Salamandridce (Salamandra Ogygia and Triton Noachicus), both un- 

 known in the analogous Tertiaries of IN". Bohemia. Palceobatrachus 

 Goldfussi, however, occurring plentifully both in the Rhenish and in 

 the Markersdorf Brown- coal, it may be considered that these deposits 

 are coeval. [Count M.] 



Metallic Lead in Basaltic Rocks. By F. Ritter von Hatter. 

 [Proceed. Imp. Geol. Instit. Vienna, March 29, 1859.] 

 Professor Redtenbacher and Baron Ch. Reichenbach found in a 

 specimen of grey wacke -like basaltic tuff from Rautenberg (N. Mo- 

 ravia), intended for chemical analysis, one larger and five or six 

 smaller metallic grains, firmly adhering to the stony mass and offer- 

 ing all the physical and chemical characters of metallic lead. Dis- 

 solved in nitric acid, this substance gave perfect crystals of nitrate 

 of lead ; and sulphuric acid produced in the solution a copious white 

 precipitate, blackening with sulphuret of ammonia, but not soluble 

 in it. 



The occurrence of native lead is extremely rare ; the only authen- 

 ticated instances of it are a specimen with oxide of lead, from Perote 

 (Vera Cruz), brought to Europe by Mr. Stein, some minute scales 

 and globules, discovered by Dr. Perrenner in 1853, in the auriferous 

 sands of Olah Juan (Transylvania), and a siniilar occurrence in the 

 gold-sands of Leontjewsky (Ural mining district). [Count M.] 



On the Fossil Fishes of the Austrian Empire. By M. Steindacher. 



[Proceed. Imp. Acad. Vienna, July 14, 1859.] 

 Six new species have been described by M. Steindacher. The first 

 of them, Avpichihys pretiosus, a new genus of the (at present tro- 

 pical) family Vomeridce, occurs in the dark slates of Camen in 

 Istrian Karst. The second, Strinsia alata, from the tertiaries of 

 Szakadat (Transylvania), is the first known fossil species of a genus 

 the only known recent species of which (Str. Tinea) lives on the 

 Sicilian coast. Of the four others, all from the Tertiaries of Pod 

 Sujed, near Agram (Croatia), one is a Scomber, the first fossil repre- 

 sentative of the genus, and whose nearest recent ally fives in the 

 Indian Seas ; and the others belong to the genus Chcetoessa, hitherto 

 unknown in a fossil state. [Count M.] 



