316 Professor Sedgwick and Mr. Murchison on the 



nites with the ordinary concamerations, one of which is very near to A. mu- 

 tabilis ; spheroidal masses like the Alcyconic fossils of the green-sand ; many 

 casts of shells resembling organic remains of the oolites, and a singular body 

 (found in our Kimmeridge clay and abounding in the Solenhofen slate) to 

 which the name Tcllinites solenoides has been sometimes given. At Aussee, 

 in the beds of limestone containing the saliferous marls, there are, along with 

 other fossils, Pentacrinites, and Corallines of the genera Tubipora and 

 Astraea*. 



If the obscurity of the subject prevent us from determining the exact place 

 of the great, saliferous system of the Alps, it is at least certain that the deposits 

 at Aussee, ilalstadt, Ischel, and IJallein, are superior to a great mass of 

 strata above described, wiiich we have endeavoured to compare with the lias 

 and the lower part of the oolitic series. There are, therefore, two salt de- 

 posits of the Alps ; one probably of the same age with the principal rock-salt 

 formations of England, the other in a position higher than any like formation 

 we are acquainted with in this country. Recent discoveries have indeed 

 proved the existence of salt among rocks of almost all ages. It is daily accu- 

 mulating in certain inland lakes and marshes ; in Poland it probably exists 

 principally, if not entirely, among tertiary rocks ; in the Austrian Alps we 

 have placed it in the oolitic system ; in Switzerland it is placed by Mr. Bake- 

 well in the lias ; in Wirtemberg, Alberti has proved it to be in the muschelkalk ; 

 in England^ our greatest salt mines are in the new red sandstone; but there 

 are two or three copious salt springs in the coal formation, from one of which 

 salt has been largely extracted. In certain parts of the United States, salt- 

 springs issue from old transition slate roclcsf ; and, lastly, a spring containing 

 a great proportion of salt, rises near Keswick, from the lowest division of the 

 slate rocks of Cumberland. 



6. Younger Alpine Limestone — Upper Portion of the Oolitic Series? 



Under this head we do not, as in our former paper, include all the remain- 

 ing secondary deposits of the chain, but only those parts of them which in- 

 tervene between the saliferous system last described, and an outer zone sup- 

 posed to be of the age of the green-sand or chalk. As the parallel of the 



* While tliis sheet was passing through the press, we were favoured with the sight of the fossils 

 collected by Dr. Buckland from the saliferous limestone of Halstadt in 1820. They have been 

 carefully examined by Mr. J. Sowerby, who refers them to the following genera: Ammonites, 

 Orthocera, Buccinum, and Trochus ? 



t Phil. Mag. and Annals, N. S., vol. vii. p. 200. 



