older Deposits of the North of Germany and Belgium. 237 



tion*. Near Mettmann, for example, it is seen both in dark and light-coloured grey masses, partly earthj^ 

 partly crystalline. At Elberfeldt it has an altered aspect, is very irregular in its bedding, and is of a coarse 

 granular structure, much veined, and full of nests of dolomite with cracks and fissures containing breccia. 

 Parts of the rock are here loaded with, almost made up of, one species of coral, the Favosites ramosa. 

 The rock preserves this altered character in the sharp and peaked ridge -which extends from Elberfeldt 

 to Weipperfeldt. At the latter place it regains its regularly stratified form, and is composed of a dark 

 grey and light grey, hard, subcrystalline rock, which stands out in slightly inclined terraces, and is largely 

 quarried f. The so-called Favosites ramosa is still most abundant ; but here, as in the environs of Mett- 

 mann, we find other fossils associated with it ; the most remarkable of which are Strigocephalus Burtini, 

 Turritella coronata {Buccinum spinosum, Sowerby), Turritella bilineata, Goldf.J. To the north of Schwelm, 

 where the beds are repeated by a fault (see PI. XXIII. f. 3.), and the limestone is quarried in thick 

 beds, fossils are still more abundant. Of corals we see in the southern quarries a vast profusion of the 

 Favosites ramosa, Stromatopora polymorpha, S. concentrica, with whole beds of the genera Strigocephalus 

 and Gypidia^. These strata are underlaid by black and grey schists which pass downwards into psam- 

 mitic grauwacke, beneath which (immediately above the town of Schwelm) are other courses of limestone 

 of dark colour and of concretionary structure, in Avhich occur Favosites polymorpha, F. Spongites, 

 F. gothlandica, Tercbratula aspera (Schloth.), with two or three species of Spirifera. 



The same fossils are found at Hagen, and some of them in the lowest beds of 

 the formation at Eilpe ; but they are still better exhibited at Limburg and Leth- 

 mate, and in the whole of the great calcareous flexure which extends from Iserlohn 

 to Balve (see map, PI. XXIV.). 



A similar succession may be observed in ascending the gorge of the Hiinne river, 

 from Menden towards Balve, the red shale which overlies the limestone being there 

 much developed. This gorge resembles some of the finest valleys in the mountain 

 limestone of England. Equally picturesque is the wider gorge, watered by the 

 Lenne, between Lethmate and Griine, through which the high road passes. As the 

 descending section exhibited in this spot shows the exact relations of the great lime- 

 stone, both to the overlying beds of shale and psammite and to the underlying 

 schists and grauwacke, we here give it in some detail. (See PI. XXIII. Sect. 4.) 



* This remark perhaps applies to every great formation of transition limestone ; but we may state 

 that, without any reference to our classification, and before we had made out the relations of the great 

 calcareous zone above described, we were again and again struck with its close resemblance to the great 

 limestone of South Devon, especially in those places where it was most perfectly developed. 



f The Favosites ramosa, according to Mr. Lonsdale, was so named by M. Brassart, the predecessor 

 of M. Goldfuss in the museum of Bonn. Mr. Lonsdale has decided that this coral, which is also found 

 in Devonshire, is not a Favosites. 



X We here use the old names under which we recognised the presence of Devonian (British) types 

 in Westphalia. The two species of so-called Turritella mentioned in this and many other places, have, 

 together with some other species, been since established as a new genus by MM. de Verneuil and 

 d'Archiac under the name of " Murchisonia." (See the description of the Mollusks.) 



§ Gypidia gryphoides of Goldfuss, Terebratula Gryphus of de Buch. Note by MM. de Verneuil and 

 d'Archiac ; see also posted Descriptions of Fossils and Tabular List. 



VOL. VI. SECOND SERIES. 2 I 



