280 Mr. MuRCHisoN on a Fossil Fox found at (Eningen near Constance, 



The quarries seen in the accompanying- wood-cut are situated on the right 

 bank of the Rhine, just where the river re-issues from the Zeller-See or lesser 

 lake of Constance, about two miles distant from the village of (Eningen, and 

 three miles west of the town of Stein. The lowest of these is near the village 

 of Wangen, about two hundred feet above the level of the river ; the highest is 

 nearly one mile further distant from the Rhine, and about six hundred feet 

 above its level. In both the upper and lower quarries are found an abundance 

 of freshwater and terrestrial remains, to the entire exclusion of anything 

 marine; and in both cases the marl beds rest upon molasse, which rock thus 

 forming the bottom of the basin, is exposed beneath the lower quarries in the 

 denudation of the Rhine, and rises behind them into the woody hills of 

 Schienen. It would therefore appear from the configuration of this district, 

 that the valley in which the Rhine now flows was, at a remote period, deeply 

 excavated in the molasse, and that subsequently, a lake was formed in one of 

 the broader parts of this valley, in which marls and limestone were gradually 

 deposited : indeed the arrangement and shape of the strata scarcely allow of 

 any other hypothesis ; for the beds though nearly horizontal, thicken slightly 

 towards the centre of the basin, whilst the nature of the organic remains, 

 and their deposition in successive layers, not only prove the long period of 

 time which must have elapsed during their accumulation, but also demonstrate 

 the lacustrine origin of the deposit*. 



Lower Quarries, 



The lower quarries have never been extensively worked on account of the 

 incoherent nature of the stone, nor have they afforded the same quantity 

 of organic remains as the upper quarries ; they are however at present ex- 

 posed to the depth of about twenty-five feet. The principal beds are cream- 

 coloured marlstones, with a blue, internal fracture, and have in parts a con- 

 siderable proportion of sand and some mica, which seem to have been 

 derived from the detntus of the formation of molasse on which they rest. 

 These strong beds are separated from each other by thin way-boards of 

 unctuous, argillaceous marl. Plants chiefly dicotyledonous, fishes, and shells, 

 are distributed throughout the finer bands of marlstone, which separate the 

 coarser beds from each other. Amongst the plants I here found that remark- 

 able impression of a leaf described in the sequel as Populus cordifo 

 several small fishes, a few shells of Anodonta, &c. 



* In corroboration of these Tiews, see Karg's Memoir, cited, p. 278. 



