SUESS KOSSEN BRACHIOPODA. 29 



numbers, but, some Rhynchonellce excepted, only as single shells ; so 

 that their determination is extremely difficult. This circumstance 

 and the appearance of the rock in the form of thin and often- 

 repeated layers in the massive Dachstein limestone justifies the 

 opinion, that the Starhemberg Strata have been formed of loose 

 materials carried by partial currents from a coast abounding in shells 

 into the open sea. Nevertheless a more careful inquiry shows some- 

 times extensive local beds of a star-coral, also met with in the Koessen 

 strata, which form the lower limit of one of the intercalated Star- 

 hemberg beds. This phaenomenon is particularly evident at the 

 typical locality in the Piesting valley, in front of the castle of 

 Starhemberg, westward of Piesting ; so the Starhemberg strata 

 might perhaps be considered more correctly as "colonies" be- 

 longing to the Koessen strata. Few localities, and these very di- 

 stant from each other, are known at present ; yet their petrographical 

 and palaeontological characters are very constant. The most eastern 

 are near Ilirtenberg and around Piesting (south and westward, at 

 Salzmann's, near the cottage called Teufel, in front of Starhem- 

 berg, &c.). They occur to the westward near Tonion in the Miirz 

 valley ; then, after a long interval, near the Grimming in the Enns 

 valley, and finally at Kirchholz near Adneth. They are also to be 

 met, but without any fossils, on some intermediate places, e. g. in 

 the Dachstein Mountains. Perhaps we know so little at present 

 about these certainly extensive strata only because, owing to their 

 position in the Dachstein limestone, the places where they come to 

 the surface are situated on inaccessible cliffs. 



The Dachstein limestone (Megalodus limestone of Schafhautl and 

 Escher) having, with only one and that not yet well-determined ex- 

 ception, furnished no Brachiopods, I shall only briefly refer to it. It 

 is known to form a very important portion of our mountain-masses, 

 and to extend, together with the Koessen strata, from the western 

 frontier of Vorarlberg to the vicinity of Vienna. It is recognized 

 at many localities in the southern Alps, e. g. the valley of the ildige 

 near Trient, where it appears most distinctly. 



We do not confine the denomination of Dachstein limestone to the 

 upper strata, containing the Dachstein bivalve ; on the contrary, we 

 extend it to the whole mass of white, yellowish, or greyish limestones 

 occupying sometimes the whole interval from the uppermost members 

 of the trias up to the upper lias, and exhibiting in their fossiliferous 

 intercalated layers a fauna agreeing with that of the Koessen strata. 

 In the Dachstein Mountains, the whole group forming the subject of 

 this memoir is exclusively represented by the Dachstein limestone 

 and its intercalated beds. 



Some of these intercalated layers offer particularities singular 

 enough to deserve a detailed exposition. Those containing Rhyn- 

 chonellu pedata are the most apparent among them. A series of 

 localities, extending from the Hohewand near Wiener-Neustadt to 

 the Tannerkopf and the Konigsbach Alpe in Bavaria, have acquainted 

 us with strata which, although very variable in their petrographical 

 aspect, are connected by a singular particularity, containing, as far 



