ESTHERIA MINUTA. 



53 



a somewhat naiTower outline than is usual with E. minuia. See PI. V, fig. 9. This may 

 be the form indicated by Voltz as Pos. Alberta ; if so we may distinguish it as E. minuta, 

 var. Alberta. 



The occurrence of E-stheria minuta at two horizons in the Triassic Series of the Lower 

 Rhine, is clearly indicated by Prof. A. Daubrec in his admirable ' Description Gcologique 

 &c, du Departement de Bas-Rhin,' 1852. 



M. Daubree has com'teously replied to my inquiries respecting the Estherian strata of 

 Alsace, and put me in communication Avith Prof. W. P. Schimpcr, who has obligingly 

 favoured me with specimens and information. 



In the district referred to, the Triassic strata, underlying the " Lias Sandstone with 

 bones of Reptiles and Pishes," are thus enumerated : 



Marls and dolomites, alternating (four metres) ; among them is a dolo- 



mitic marl containing impressions of bivalve shells {Esfheria minuta 



and Linffula tenuissimd). 

 Blackish marls and blackish micaceous schists, with carbonaceous remains 



of plants: four or five metres. 

 Red and grey marls and dolomites, with some sandy beds. 

 Yellowish micaceous sandstone and dolomite, with undeterminable casts 



of bivalves. ' 



Dolomites, interstratified with marls. 

 Fossiliferous limestone, with marly partings. 

 Dolomites. (Wellenkalk.) 



Keuper. {ki Oberbronn,' 

 'Gcol. B.is-Rhin,' p. 127). 



Red and green clays, with gypsum and rock-salt. 



Musclielkalk. (Alsace ; Op. 

 cit., p. 118, 119.) 



West of the Vosges, at Saltz- "| 

 bronn ; Op. cit., p. 120. -^ 

 At Soultz-les-Bains ; Op. cit., ") Passage-beds of the Muschelkalk. Beds of crystalline dolomite, with 

 p. 102. J thin bands of shale. 



Sandstone, in bands from eight to twenty inches ' 

 thick, alternating with laminated clays and dolo- 

 Upper. / mites (each in bands from four to eight inches V About fifty feet, 

 thick), forming a yellowish and reddish series of 

 fine-grained sands and clays. 



Gres Bigarre 



or 



Bunter Sandstone. 



{Loe. cit!) 



) About fortv feet. 



Fine-grained sandstones, reddish, yellowish-brown, 



and greenish grey (redder below, greyer above), 



Lower. ( with ferruginous streaks, in beds of from twenty 



inches to eight feet thick, separated by thin beds 



of laminated sandstone and shaly clay. Estherice. 



Passage-bed. Red pebbly sandstone. 

 Vosges sandstone ( := Permian). 



" In the quarry at Soultz-les-Bains, which has been the most productive, the beds lying 

 over the sandstones worked for building-stone, contain veiy few remains of plants, but 



1 Two miles south-west of Niederbronn, and seventeen miles and a quarter south-west of Wissembourg. 



