212 Professor Sedgwicr and Mr. Muuchison on the 



limestone, cemented by light grey, indurated marl : the smaller fragments 

 are of the size of nuts, and the larger are several inches in diameter. 

 Small ill. preserved organic remains are seen in the lower part of this bed. 4 



3. A great development of dark grey marls, with a few marine shells 120 



4. Thin layer of fine-grained, calcareous sandstone, in its lower part passing 



into a fine, calcareous conglomerate containing various shells, as Ostreae, 

 Pectens, &c 20 8 



5. Thin. bedded marls with many incoherent, indeterminable shells. Thin lines 



of white earth made up of these decomposed shells mark the lamina; of 

 deposit. In other layers these shells constitute the whole mass. The 

 more the beds approach the underlying fetid limestone, the better are the 

 organic remains preserved 1 30 



6. Bed of very indurated bituminous marlstone of dark colour, and highly 



fetid : siliceovis sand is mixed irregularly with the mass. This bed is 

 stated by Fliirl to have contained corals and other marine shells. We 

 observed Serpulae (probably derived from this bed), which Mr. Sowerby 

 considers of the same species with those of Gosau, but saw no madrepores 

 like those described by Fliirl .{Thickness not given.) 



7. Conglomerate, partly brecciated, partly made up of rounded pebbles of 



compact limestone, with some fragments of shells 4 6 



8. Stinkstone — a great development of a highly fetid, slaty, cream-coloured 



marlstone, with many plants and some shells. It forms the roof of the 

 lignite, and usually splits into finely laminated slabs, like the lithographic 

 slate of Solenhofen, offering a prodigious number of carbonized impres- 

 sions of leaves and plants between the lamina;. {Thickness not given.) 



In the stinkstone the following mineral varieties have been noticed. 



a. Hornstone — in small, irregularly spheroidal concretions. 



b. Brand.schiefer — a kind of porcelain earth in a thin layer above the coal, to the spontaneous 

 combustion of which some of its characters are probably due. A part of this "burnt earth" on 

 weathering resembles bituminized wood, and burns rapidly, leaving out of 800 parts 334 of 

 ashes; so that b7\ per cent, of bitumen and water pass off during the combustion. 



c. Carbonate of lime — traversing, in small transverse veins, all the beds of stinkstone and over- 

 lying marls. Some of the crystals of carbonate of lime are so charged with bitumen, that when 

 subjected to great heat they give off petroleum. 



d. Agaric mineral or mountain milk — subordinate to the fetid marlstone, and similarly lami- 

 nated. It is called " nichts" by the workmen. 



c. Pyrites and Selenite — in crystals between the lamina;. 



Mr. Fliirl conceives that some of the bituminized and altered fetid marl- 

 stones are due to an ancient, spontaneous combustion of the coal. 



Among the fossil plants are many which the older authors compared to 

 existing species of Salix, Ligustrum, Rhamnus, Erica, &c., as well as to 

 Ferns and Mosses. We have, however, seen none which appeared to justify 

 such comparisons : and from a considerable number we obtained on the spot. 



