30 GEOLOGICAL MEMOIRS. 



Aralo- Caspian strata extend, so as to make possible the migration of 

 certain species from one of these regions to another, since throughout 

 this enormously extensive area the conditions of Molluscan existence 

 (similar to those at present obtaining in the Caspian Sea and the 

 Aral Lake) offered but insignificant differences. 



The salt water of the Mediterranean, connected with all the just 

 mentioned depressions when the more ancient Miocene strata were 

 deposited, was perfectly secluded from them during the Congerian 

 period. Subsequently it again advanced to the Gulf of Odessa and 

 the Afourian Sea, when it once more found its way along the depres- 

 sions made by the sinkings of the Balkano-Caucasian chain. Many 

 deposits containing marine forms of the present age prove the conti- 

 nent to have been depressed beneath its present level during the 

 Diluvial or older Alluvial periods. Future investigations may assist 

 in stating, whether this depression was sufficient to give access to 

 sea-water as far inland as the Hungarian plain (the loose sands of 

 which are considered by Baron Bichthofen* to be of marine origin) 

 and the Vienna basin, in the erratic diluvium of which remains of 

 marine shells have been discovered by Prof. Suessf . 



[Count M.] 



Some /Sections of the Congerian and Cerithian Strata in Hungary 

 and Austria. By MM. Stur and H. Wolf. 



[Proceed. Imp. Geol. Insfcit. Vienna, April 17 & April 24, I860.] 



1. Between Modern and Bosing {Western Hungary, near the fron- 

 tier of Austria). [Stur.] — Tbese strata, arenaceous, with minute 

 particles of mica, are particularly developed at the church-yard of 

 Terlink and near the village of Zukersdorf. Dr. Kornhuber found 

 in them Oardium Vindobonense, Lam., Bonax Brocchii, Defr., 

 Turritella bicarinata, Eichw., Lucina Columbella, Lam., L. divari- 

 cata, Lam., Area Biluvii, Lam., and Ostrea lamellosa, Brocc. ; this 

 last perforated by parasitic shells. A section of these strata, taken 

 on the steep banks of a rivulet, shows in descending order : — 1. Loam 

 or Loess ; 2. Sand ; 3. Sandstone (3-4 inches) ; 4. Sand, abounding 

 with Molluscan remains (2-3 feet); 5. Calcareous, soft, porous 

 sandstone, with Molluscan fragments like those of No. 4 (1 ft.) ; 

 6. Greenish " tegel," or clay, imperfectly laid bare, with fragments 

 like those of No. 5. 



Another section, 48-60 feet N.W. from the first one, and 3-4 feet 

 above it, showed in descending order : — 1. Loess; 2. Coarse felspathic 

 sands, alternating with greenish clay (both assuming brown tints 

 in contact with the air) ; 3. Clay (scarcely 2 inches), with Congeria 

 subglobosa, Partsch, and Melanopsis Martiniana, Per. ; 4. Sand 

 (4-5 inches) ; 5. Coarse soft sandstone, like No. 5 of the first section, 

 but certainly higher in relative position ; 6. Sands, like No. 4 of 

 the first section, with the same Mollusca. Nos. 4, 5, and 6 yielded 



* Jahrb. geol. Keichsanst, x. p. 459. f Ibid. x. Verhandl. p. 100. 



