38 GEOLOGICAL MEMOIRS. 



faunas must have lasted, — a period measured by a deposit 1200 metres 

 thick, that forms the upper strata of Group D. 



[More or less analogous phsenomena are pointed out by M. C. Pre- 

 vost (Bullet. I. c. p. 156), Prof. Bronn (Jahrb. I. c. p. 307), and 

 M. Barrande himself (Bullet. I. c. p. 158), amongst which are refer- 

 ences to the Inferior and Great Oolites — see Morris and Lycett's 

 Monograph on the Great Oohte Mollusca, Pal. Soc, 1 850 ; Lycett, 

 on the Minchinhampton Oolite, Ann. Nat. Hist. 1848, vol. ii. p. 248 

 et seq. (noticed, Jahrb. 1850, p. 869), and Brodie on the Lower 

 Oolite near Cheltenham, Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc. 1850, vol. vi. p. 239 

 et seq. (see Remarks, Jahrb. 1851, p. 487) ; and to the Oolite and 

 Cretaceous Bocks of Portugal, see Sharpe, Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc. 

 1850, vol. vi. p. 101 et seq. (noticed, Jahrb. 1850, p. 638).] 



[T. R. J.] 



On the FoRAMiNiFERA of the neighbourhood o/ Basle. 

 By P. Merian. 



[Bericht Verhandl. Naturf. Gesellsch. Basel, 1851, ix. pp. 49, 50.] 



Very few Foraminifera have been as yet noticed from the Jurassic 

 deposits, their minuteness occasioning them to be overlooked. In 

 the lower division of the '* Sequanian" formation there is a bed com- 

 pletely filled with small fossils. In an excursion made in the neigh- 

 bourhood of Pruntrut by the author, accompanied by M. Jos. Kochlin 

 and M. Thurmann, the latter discovered a fine Crist ellaria, which 

 was shortly after found in great abundance in a corresponding bed 

 by the author and M. Kochlin. To this species, which is unde- 

 scribed, M. Merian gives the name Cristellaria Sequana. The 

 hornstone-concretions in the Coralline limestone of Istein are parti- 

 cularly rich in Foraminifera, which is also the case with the hornstone 

 and jasper-concretions of Hertingen, Liehl, Auggen, &c. in Baden ; 

 and the same species appear to be found in the siliceous nodules of 

 the Coralline limestone as in those of the pea-iron-ore. The matrix 

 appears to have been very favourable for the preservation of these smal 1 

 animal remains ; for scarcely a nodule can be found in either of these 

 formations that does not contain Foraminifera. M. Merian found a 

 Nodosaria in great abundance in all the localities named ; a Cristel- 

 laria in the hornstone of the pisolite deposit of Hertingen ; and a 

 third species, with an irregular spiral shell, whose form cannot be 

 entirely made out from the specimens, in the yellow jasper of Auggen. 

 Farther research in these siliceous formations will doubtless produce 

 more species. M. Merian has never yet found anything of the kind 

 in the numerous hornstone-nodules of the Muschelkalk. 



In the compact calcareous Molasse of Stettin near Basle, which is 

 of tertiary age, M. Merian has also found two species of Foraminifera, 

 a Quinqueloculina and a Spiroloculina, and expects on further search 

 to find more. No fossils of this class have yet been quoted by name 

 from the extensive Molasse series of the centre of Switzerland. Its 

 matrix is usually not favourable for preserving these small animals in 

 a recognizable condition. [J. C. M.] 



