14 GEOLOaiCAL MEMOIES, 



- On some Tertiary Fishes from the Vienna Basin. 

 By M. Steindachner. 



[Proc. Imp. Acad. Vienna, April 28, 1859.] 



M, Steindachner described four new species of fossil fish from the 

 Plastic Clay of Hernals, near Vienna. Three of them (Clinus gracilis, 

 Sphyrcena Viennensis and Garanx carangopsis, Heck.) rank among 

 genera now living in the seas of warmer cUmates ; ftie fourth, Scor-* 

 pcenodes dluridens (of the Order Cataphracti), constitutes a new 

 generic type. Prof. Suess has remarked that the occurrence of 

 these undoubtedly marine species in the plastic clays, where also 

 numerous remains oiPhocce and dolphins have been found, associated 

 with those of a fluviatile Chelonian {Trionyoc) and a notable quantity 

 of vegetable fragments (amongst which are a Proteacea and a sub- 

 tropical Law^inea), proves this clay to have been an estuarine forma- 

 tion, deposited at the mouth of a river. 



[Count M.] 



On the Marine Tertiary Deposits of Bohemia. By Prof. Beuss. 



[Proc. Imp. Acad. Vienna, June 24, 1859.] 



These Tertiaries, hitherto quite neglected, have been recently laid 

 open by the railroad between Prague, Olmiitz, and Briinn. They 

 are the north-easternmost outliers of the Austro-Moravian tertiary 

 basin, confined to a very narrow space around Triibau and Landskron 

 on the eastern Bohemo-Moravian frontier. According to Prof. 

 Eeuss, these tertiaries, distributed in four distinct groups, are re- 

 mains of a once continuous deposit in a narrow bay running from 

 the Moravian plain into Bohemia. They appear under the form of 

 plastic clay resting on Devonian or on Cretaceous rocks, and contain- 

 ing nimierous organic remains. Prof. Eeuss has found at Eudelsdorf 

 no less than 202 distinct species, together with some few remains 

 of Mammals and Fishes. The other localities gave only 23 species, 

 of which only 6 are diiferent from those of Eudelsdorf. A skeleton 

 of Dinotherium giganteum was discovered, some years ago, in the 

 plastic clay of Abtsdorf . The palaeontological character of the strata 

 in question is the same as that of the youngest neogene deposits in 

 the Vienna basin. They may be best compared, in this respect, with 

 the upper Leitha-limestone of Steinabrunn. The individual shells 

 found in them are of remarkably small size, — a circumstance which, 

 in conjunction with other peculiarities, favours the supposition that 

 the Eastern Bohemian Tertiaries were deposited (towards the close 

 of the Miocene period) at the margin of a very shallow bay, in which 

 the saltness of sea-water had undergone sensible diminution from 

 the access of river- water. 



[Count M.] 



A 



