FE. VON HAUE11 CONGERIAN STKATA. 2[) 



M. Kerbich* discovered in a northern lateral bay of this basin, 

 near Baroth, Vargyas, and Bazon, a bed of trachytic tuff, including 

 Congerice, Neritince, Paludince, and Planorbes, with plenty of vege- 

 table remains. 



The facts here quoted agree in proving the diffusion of a fauna 

 similar to the Aralo-Caspian through a series of strata, of a less 

 ancient date than the marine Miocenes in the Vienna basin, over a 

 great portion of this basin, and the whole Danubian depression of 

 Hungary, stretching northward into the Carpathian valleys, and 

 southward as far as the northern foot of the Balkan. The absence of 

 these deposits in the neighbouring regions is a fact no less striking. 

 The strata in question in the Danubian valley do not ascend farther 

 than Vienna ; they are not known to exist in the upper Tertiary 

 basin of Austria, nor around St. Palten ; nor in the plain of Tulln : 

 they seem even, according to the facts at present known, to be 

 wanting within that portion of the Vienna basin which is N.W. of 

 a line running along the Bisamberg, the mountains of Nikolsburg, 

 and the Marsgebirgf. The Galician plain, north of the Carpathians, 

 the south-western slope of the Carnian, Julian, and Dinarian Alps, 

 and the plain of the Po have not hitherto afforded the least trace of 

 them. Consequently the western limit of this fauna may be con- 

 sidered as recognizable with a certain degree of certitude. 



The localities in Bessarabia and in the Dobrudscha, mentioned by 

 Capt. Spratt, are indicative of an eastward connexion with the 

 Caspian Sea through the Crimea. The question— whether the more 

 southerly freshwater regions on the banks of the Sea of Marmora 

 and around the iEgean Sea, described by Capt. Spratt, were imme- 

 diately connected with those here described, or whether, on this side, 

 the mountain -chain of the Balkan and that of the Southern Crimea 

 (the continuity of which Capt. Spratt has ascertained by soundings in 

 the Black Sea J) have acted as a separating barrier, — must remain 

 undecided until the organic remains collected by Capt. Spratt have 

 undergone a stricter determination and an exact comparison with 

 those of the eastern Steppe-limestone and of our northern " Inzers- 

 dorf Tegel." 



Prof. Suess's investigations have been important in confirming the 

 hitherto somewhat hypothetically asserted difference of age in the 

 Vienna tertiaries, and in proving the deposition of the most recenl 

 among them (the Congerian or Inzersdorf Tegel) to have taken place 

 in a freshwater lake. Tho facts here collected may show (in my 

 opinion) that similar waters tilled up the whole Danubian depres- 

 sion subsequently to the marine Miocene period, communicating 

 with coexistent lakes in the Dobrudscha, the Crimea, the borders oi 

 the Caspian Sea and of the Aral Lake, and in Asia, as far as the 



* Baron Hingcnau's " Oesterrcidiische Zeitsclirift i'lir Berg- u. Huttenweseil," 

 1859, p. 155. 



t Suess, " Ueber die Wbhnaifcze der Brachiopoden," in the Sitznngsber. Akad 

 Wissensch. xw. p. 161. 



} Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc. xiii. p BO 



