338 Professor Sedgwick and Mr. Murchison on the 



The former of these sections (to which the attention of one of the authors 

 was directed by Dr. Boue) exhibits, more or less perfectly, a long succession 

 of deposits from the ridges of Alpine limestone to the tertiary marls, near the 

 town of Traunstein. Each of these deposits we now proceed briefly to notice 

 in the ascending order*. 



1. Compact, Alpine limestone, &c., occupying the south side of the gorge of the Miesenbach. 

 This was not examined in any detail, as our attention was chiefly directed to the superior groups. 



"2. Hills of sandstone and calcareous shale ; — the exact relations of the beds exceedingly ob- 

 scured by vegetation and forests. At Loheim, a cellular, grey, tufaceous limestone, resembling 

 coarse raucks:ackef, has been extensively deposited on the sides of the hills. 



3. Black, calcareous, slaty shale, with brown and blue, calcareous sandstone, slightly micaceous, 

 traversed by white veins of carbonate of lime, and breaking into small, cubical fragments : dip 

 W.S.W. 40°. All this part of the series (from the gorge of Miesenbach to the glen of Dieselbach), 

 though of great thickness, is ill exposed : it represents the Vienna grits, and in parts is quite 

 identical with the fucoid shales of the valley of Sonthofen. 



4. Thinly foliated, blue and dark green marls in beds nearly vertical ; imperfectly seen in the 

 glen called Dieselbach. From this point the strata are more clearly exhibited in precipitous cliffs 

 on the left bank of the Traun, beginning nearly opposite to the town of Arzt. 



5. Ochreous and ferruginous, coarse-grained grit, with Nummulites, Spatangi, large, broken 

 bivalves, &c., in thick beds, with a northerly dip of 80°. These beds contain many brown quartz 

 pebbles, and pass into the next superior group. 



6. Hard, thick-bedded, calcareo-ferruginous grit, full of Nummulites, and with traces of many 

 fossils ; among which large Pectens and Spatangi are the only well-preserved genera. 



7. Strong beds of calc-grit with Nummulites ; of a still firmer texture than the preceding beds ; 

 from which they differ, in being of a greenish blue colour, and speckled with grains of brown iron 

 ore. The strike of all these strata is east and west ; they are quite vertical, and their thickness 

 is at least 800 feet. The hill they occupy is opposite the town of Arzt, and is called the Erz- 

 berg, probably from the quantity of iron ore disseminated through the rock. 



These strata (4, 5, 6 & 7) appear to occupy about the same place in the series asthenummulitic, 

 calcareous grits and iron ores of Sonthofen, and like them, do not contain any fossils of a de- 

 cidedly tertiary character. Beyond them is a denudation extending for several hundred yards to 

 the banks of the river ; and through this interval it is impossible to trace the successive deposits ; 

 but from the nature of the strata which are next met with, it is probable that the space denuded 

 was occupied by marls or cretaceous shales. 



* Plate XXXVI. fig. 6. 



-j- The rock in question is of an open, tufaceous structure, and does not appear to be of the 

 same age as the beds with which it is associated. Our reasons for this opinion are : 1. Because 

 the tufaceous rock dips to the east from the peaked hills above Loheim, while the regular strata 

 dip west and south : 2. Because we were unable to find it in the bed of the Traun below the 

 quarries; where, had it been continuous, it must have been seen alternating with the slaty grits 

 and shales of the section. We therefore concluded, that this rock (regarded by Dr. Boue as a 

 secondary rauchwacke) is an ancient travertino^ produced long after the contiguous formations 

 were consolidated. 



