1866.] GODWIJ^-ATJSTEN BELGIAN" TEETIAEIES. 231 



Of this arrangement it may be remarked that the " Crag noir " of 

 the local Antwerp geologists is distinguished from and made superior 

 to the Systeme Biestien of Dumont, whose 8. Diestien at that place 

 (see Map, small edition) is described as consisting of " sable glau- 

 conifere coquillier"*. 



M. Nyst's latest subdivision of the Belgian Kainozoic series is as 

 follows : — 



1. Yellow Sands, Steuvenberg, Calloo. Cyprina, Isocardia, Astarte. 



2. Argillaceous Sands, Deurne. Cetacean bones, Pecten, Cyprina, As- 



tarte, 



3. Grey Sands. Pecten Gerardii, broken shells abun- 



dant. 



4. Grey running Sand, Bryozoa, shells scarce, same as 3. 



5. Black Sands, Edeghem, Berchem, Includes Pectunculus-hsind. 



F'. Herenthals. 



In 1861 M. Nyst published a very interesting paper f, to which is 

 appended a list of 146 species of fossil shells and four Zoophytes ; of 

 these, 58 had not been previously noticed as occurring in the Kaino- 

 zoic beds of Belgium. 



The object of this paper is to state the result of that particular 

 enquiry which was of chief interest in connexion with the Antwerp 

 sections, namely the Zoological value of the subdivisions of the crag 

 beds there, and whether the proposed vertical order of arrangement 

 was correct in fact. Mr. Lankester visited Antwerp in 1864, and a 

 memoir communicated to this Society J served to revive the interest 

 of these questions. 



2. Systeme ScalcUsien. — In order that the position of the Kaino- 

 zoic series about Antwerp may be understood, it must be borne in 

 mind that from the North Citadel on the Scheldt, as far as Deurne 

 (about half the extent of the ^' enceinte "), the level of the country is 

 below that of the river at high-water, which now rises 4*50 metres ; 

 low- water being 0*15 metre above that at Ostend. At this, the 

 north end of the section, where the Crag beds have been laid bare 

 beneath polder mud, its upper surface is at about low- water level, 

 and at nearly the same level are the beds so rich in shells, out of 

 which the Docks have been excavated, from beneath peaty beds and 

 polder mud. "We collected largely from these shell-beds, or rather 

 from the spoil-banks. The assemblage is that given by Sir Charles 

 Lyell, tab. ii. and iii., and by M. Kyst, list 34, p. 601§. 



North of Deurne the glacis has been formed out of the spoil from 

 the main ditch, and shows that it has been excavated out of an ex- 

 tension of the same mass of sands, gravel, and broken shells, as 

 above. South of Deurne the ground rises somewhat, and as the 

 works were then in progress, good sections were to be seen from 4 



* Tabl, des Terr. &c. de la Belgique. 



t Notice sur un nouveau gite de fossiles, se rapportant aux especes faluniennes 

 du Midi de I'Europe, decouvert a Edeghem pres d Anders. Bull de lAcad. E. 

 des Sc. de Belg. t, xiii, p. 29. See also Lyell's ' Elements,' 6th edit, p. 232. 



X Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc. vol. xxi. p. 221, 1865. 



§ Omalius, Abrege de Geologic, 7« edit. 1862. 



