TRANSLATIONS ANT) NOTICES 



OF 



GEOLOGICAL MEMOIRS. 



On the Kossen Strata in North-western Hungary. By M. Sturr. 



[Proceed. Imp. Acad. Vienna, December 1, 1859.] 

 Stjess, Oppel, and Rolle have already treated of the Kossen Strata, 

 the parallelism of their Alpine representatives with their Extra-alpine 

 " Bone-bed," and their geological position with respect to the Keuper 

 and Lias. The parallelism between, and contemporaneity of, the 

 Kossen-beds and the Bone-bed have been well proved. Their geolo- 

 gical position, however, is still controverted. The geologists of 

 Vienna have considered the Kossen Strata to be Liassic; whilst others, 

 especially of late, regard them as being the uppermost subdivision of 

 the Keuper-series. This question, unimportant or not to be solved in 

 some cases, may be easily answered as respects the Kossen Strata. 

 If, indeed, the Acephala occurring both in them and in the sand- 

 stones of the Bone-bed bear a greater resemblance to those of the 

 Trias ; their Brachiopoda, which are of greater geological import- 

 ance and specifically recognizable, are referable only to those of the 

 Lias. Ammonites planorbis, a genuine Liassic form, occurs in the 

 Kossen Strata. Other species are known to pass from the Kossen- 

 beds into the overlying Lias ; the strata always have such markedly 

 transitional characters, that the former could not be regarded as 

 Keuperian without doing violence to well-established facts. 



In Hungary the Kossen-beds rest immediately on the Red Sand- 

 stone of the Carpathian Mountains ; this sandstone, like the analo- 

 gous deposit in N.-E. Bohemia, includes masses and interstratified 

 layers of melaphyr and amygdaloid. The Werfen-slates occur only 

 at one place in the eastern portion of the district. The Upper Trias 

 is wanting in N.-W. Hungary. It may hence be inferred that the 

 Carpathians formed a continental area, and remained so for the whole 

 interval from the deposition of the Itcd Sandstone to that of the first 

 of the Kossen-beds ; and that previous to the formation of the latter 

 some convulsive movement must have newly exposed a portion of 

 the land to the action of the sea. This disturbance gave a new 

 direction to the subsequent deposition of inorganic matter and deve- 

 lopment of the organic forms; which also affords an argument in 

 favour of the Liassic relation of the Kossen Strata. [Count M. | 



On Hoernesite ; a New Mineral Species. By Prof. Kenngott 

 and Director If aidinoer. 

 [Proceed. Imp. Acad. Vienna, March S, 18(!0.] 

 When at the Vienna Imperial Museum, Prof. Kenngott (now ai 

 the University of Zurich) had recognized this new species and 

 proved it, by blowpipe, to contain magnesia and water and an acid 

 of a doubtful nature. Lately he transmitted to Dr. Edrnea the 



VOL. XVI. — PART II. c 



