ANNIVERSARY ADDRESS OF THE PRESIDENT. IxXlX 



to a connexion with the uppermost group, the Leitha Umestone ;" 

 he adds, that this opinion is solely founded on an examination of the 

 forms of Foraminifera, Bryozoa, and Entomostraca. With regard to 

 the other formation, that of Mikultschiitz, Avhich is not so rich in 

 organic remains, he observes, that, considering the total absence of 

 the Bryozoa, so characteristic of the Leitha limestone, the proba- 

 bility is that the clay beds of Mikultschiitz are the equivalent of the 

 Vienna Tegel, with a somewhat greater tendency to the upper rather 

 than the lower group. 



With regard to the further extension of this formation north of 

 the Carpathian hills, I may observe, that Prof. Kuh has ascertained, 

 by the discovery of fossils, that the gypsum deposits of Upper 

 Silesia, in the neighbourhood of Ratibor and Troppau, also belong 

 to the Tegel of the Vienna basin. Amongst the fossils which occur 

 at Schreibersdorf, between Troppau and Ratibor, Prof. Kuh men- 

 tions, besides several species of Foraminifera, Natica glaucinoidesy 

 Sow., and Coi'bula riigosa, Lam., both abundant in the Vienna 

 basin. Prof. Labecki of Warsaw, in describing the Brown-coal 

 and Salt deposits of Poland, observes, that the Brown-coal beds, 

 which Leopold v. Buch had already identified with the Brown- 

 coal of Upper Silesia, and considered as a Middle Tertiary forma- 

 tion, extend into the kingdom of Poland, thus showing a connexion 

 between the Miocene deposits along the foot of the Sudetes (the 

 Erzgebirge and the Riesengebirge), and those in Poland at the foot 

 of the Carpathian Mountains, and that they are generally connected 

 with the Salt deposits, such as those of Wieliczka, »&c. It does not 

 appear that the Miocene fossils have yet been found in Poland ; but 

 in the neighbouring province of Gallicia, on the N.E. slope of the 

 Carpathian chains, the Brown-coals and Saliferous clays are overlaid 

 by a bed 12 feet thick, containing in abundance the fossils of the 

 Leitha limestone and the Tegel of Vienna*. 



I must, however, observe, that the statement of Prof. Labecki, 

 confirming the remark of L. v. Buch, that there is only one Brown- 

 coal formation in Europe, appears to me to require some modifica- 

 tion. In one respect indeed it may be correct, viz. that they all 

 belong to the Miocene period. But the Brown-coal formation which 

 extends from Brandenburg through Silesia into Poland, must not be 

 confounded with that which occurs so extensively in the neighbour- 

 hood of Magdeburg and Westeregeln. The latter underlies the 

 fossiliferous sands of Westeregeln and of Magdeburg, which belong 

 to the oldest tertiaries of Northern Germany, whereas it appears 

 from the statements of Herr Plettner of Berlin, that the Brown-coal 

 of Mark Brandenburg overlies the Septari[i clay of Magdeburg and 

 Berlin, which again overlies the sands of Westeregeln. Plettner, 

 however, considers the Septaria clay as forming the lowest member 

 of the whole Brown-coal formation of Brandenburg. 



We have thus the following sequence in ascending order : — 



1 . Brown-coal of Magdeburg, resting on blue clay. 



2. Westeregeln sands. 



* L. v. Buch, Archiv, v. Karsten u. v. Dechen, vol. xxv. p. 164. 



