366 PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. [May 19, 



and tall columns of the tufaceous building- stone are obtained from 

 tbe quarries, and the same fossils as at Orp-le-Grand. At Amptieau 

 I found the Lower Landenian passing into a white calcareo-argilla- 

 ceous rock, much used as a fire-stone, in which I observed Fhola- 

 domya KonincMi and a small Leda^ allied to L. fragilis. As usual 

 in Belgium, a deep covering of loess renders it difficult to obtain 

 sections. 



It may be proper to mention here, that many decidedly Eocene 

 shells have been cited from Orp-le-Grand and the other localities just 

 alluded to, chiefly on the authority of M. Galeotti ; but having failed 

 to detect any of them in situ here or elsewhere in beds of this age, 

 and having conversed with M. Galeotti himself, I am convinced that 

 they were introduced into the published lists by mistake. These 

 shells have not only been cited from M. Galeotti' s memoir by M. 

 Nyst and M. d'Omalius d'Halloy*, but more recently by M. d'Ar- 

 chiacf. Among these spurious fossils are Nummulites Icevigatus, 

 Lunulites radiatus, Turbinolia sulcata, Cytherea nitidula, Lucina 

 divaricata, Cardium porulosum, Cardita elegans, Ostrea Jlabellulay 

 Dentalium JDeshayesianum, Melania marginata, Cassidaria carinata. 

 Solarium Nystii, and other Eocene shells, not one of which has ever 

 been met with in the " Lower Landenian " of Dumont. 



§ 11. Marls and Glauconite of Heers (H. Table T. p. 279). Systeme 

 Heersien of M. Dumont. 



Between the formation last mentioned and the Maestricht chalk, 

 there intervenes another series of strata, discovered by M. Dumont, 

 and called by hmi Heersien, from the village of Heers (six miles N.N.E. 

 of Waremme) . These are best seen near the village of Oreye, at the 

 farm of Vivier, about six miles N.E. of Waremme, where they con- 

 sist of white marl, resting on sandy glauconite, and this last on 

 Maestricht chalk. 



I had no opportunity of examining this locality, but was conducted 

 to another by M. Dumont at Marlinne, between Waremme and Looz, 

 about fifteen miles E. of Orp-le-Grand, and four miles N. of Waremme, 

 where this formation consisted of a white marl, 20 feet thick, as white 

 as chalk, but not so soft, and containing leaves of dicotyledonous plants, 

 but no shells. It is here seen to underlie the Lower Landenian, which 

 reposes upon it in the form of a glauconite, similar to that of Folx-les- 

 Caves. No progress has yet been made in comparing the species of 

 dicotyledonous leaves with those found in other formations. Their 

 occurrence affords no evidence of the tertiary nature of the Heersian 

 strata, now that Dr. Debey has brought to light in the lower creta- 

 ceous beds of Aix-la-Chapelle so great a variety of the leaves of 

 dicotyledonous plants J. 



It is clear, therefore, that there are in Belgium certain deposits, 

 consisting of glauconites and marls, interposed between the Chalk 



* Geologie de la Belgique, 1842. f Hist, des Progres, vol. ii. p. 502, 1848. 

 % Entwurf zu einer Geogn. Darstellung der Gegend von Aachen, 1849. See 

 also Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc. vol. vii. Part II. p. 109. 



