and the Deposit in which it was imbedded. 281 



Upper Quarries. 



These were ascertained by the barometrical observations of de Saussure to 

 be six hundred feet above the town of Stein ; but Karg, who examined the 

 formation thirteen years later^ places them at only five hundred feet. This 

 discrepancy is easily reconciled ; for in fact numerous quarries of freshwater 

 limestone have at distant periods been opened on the sides of the Schienen- 

 gebirge at very different elevations : hence it follows that the sections made 

 by geologists who may visit this locality at different times will seldom pre- 

 cisely correspond*. It will be found however, on comparison, that Karg's 

 section, made in the year 1800, accords very nearly with my own. The pre- 

 sent quarries consist of two sets of works at slightly different levels, and 

 separated from each other by about one hundred paces. The carnivorous 

 quadruped was found in the lowest of these, and overlaid by upwards of 

 twenty feet of marl, limestone, and building- stone, the beds being arranged 

 in the following- descending- order. 



Ft. In. 



1. Superficial covering of brown, stiff, argillaceous, marly earth 5 to 6 



2. Crumbling and incoherent, calcareous marls, with broken vegetable remains 



and shells, &c 5 to 7 



3. Fissile, fetid marlstone, splitting into thin slabs, containing many impressions 



of leaves and stems of plants in the laminaj of division, a few flattened 



shells of Planorbes, and a small Limnea 2 



4. Thin wayboard of dark. coloured marl 2 



5. Strong bed of cream-coloured, fine-grained, hard and fetid limestone of dull 



fracture, earthy texture, high specific gravity, with here and there a mi- 

 nute scale of mica, and an occasional transverse vein of carbonate of lime. 

 Fishes are sometimes found in the lines of separation 4 



6. Very finely laminated, white marlstone, the surface spotted over with innu- 



merable, blackish stems of plants and carbonized vegetables. Insects 

 abundant in the finest and most paper-Iike laminaj. Fishes, Crustacea 



(Cypris) and shells (Flruiorbis) also occur in these thin layers 1 2 



7 Darker coloured, thin layer of marlstone, in which was found 

 this year (1829) a magnificent specimen oi ajbssil tortoise, 

 probably the largest ever seen. It is about three feet in 

 length. Three of the pats, the head, the neck, and tail, 

 being well preserved and adherent to the body f 4 



20 8 



* In the time of Karg the quarries were much larger than at present. 



t This splendid fossil tortoise may possibly still find its way into an English museum : in the 

 mean time I would remark that the only existing species that has reminded me of the fossil, is a 

 large Testudo Indica which I recently saw in the museum at Leyden, — Jan. 1831. 



VOL. III. SECOND SERIES. 2 O 



