d'orbigny on foraminifer^ 69 



one continued for a great lapse of time. The erratic phsenomena 

 unquestionably occurred during this period ; but it is no less certain 

 that they are far from being universal, and that countries not affected 

 by them (as for instance Auvergne) nevertheless contain alluvial de- 

 posits, resulting from little local inundations, which have been succes- 

 sive, and not contemporaneous. It would therefore be better to style 

 this period ' alluvial,' since this name is more general, and is equally 

 applicable to a diluvium, which is a particular and paroxysmal case of 

 the former. 



4°. The diluvial fauna cannot be divided into two distinct ones ; 

 for the characters on which it is proposed to distinguish them are 

 arbitrary, or negative, and consequently erroneous. 



5°. This fauna contains species still existing, though at present 

 confined to the polar regions. The existence of these species in all 

 western Europe indicates the temperature of that period to have been 

 lower and more uniform than at present : it lends aid to the modern 

 theory of the former extension of glaciers, when that theory does not 

 exaggerate the consequences drawn from the co-ordination of facts, 

 but remains within the modest limits of observation. 



[J. C, M.] 



Foraminiferes Fossiles du Bassin Tertiaire de Vienne {Autriche\ 

 decouverts pa?' Joseph de Hauer et decrits par Alcide 

 d'Orbigny. Paris, 1846. 1 vol. 4to with 21 plates. 



The Chevalier von Hauer for many years employed his leisure in 

 collecting the Foraminiferee found in the tertiary strata around the 

 Austrian capital. Having collected a very large number of species, 

 he prevailed on M. A. d'Orbigny to undertake their description, when 

 the Emperor of Austria agreed to furnish the funds necessary for pre- 

 paring the plates and publishing the work. Besides an account of the 

 species found in the locality mentioned, the work also contains some 

 general views of the structure and classification of these microscopic 

 shells, with some general palseontological considerations on their dis- 

 tribution in different formations. From these we extract a few par- 

 ticulars. 



The Foraminiferse have been found near Vienna in the beds of 

 clay, or tegel as it is locally named, which occupy the lower part of 

 the tertiary formation, and also in the marly limestones by which they 

 are covered, but none have yet been procured from the fucoid sand- 

 stone (gres a fucoides) which overlies the whole. They have even 

 been found in these beds 116 metres below the surface in boring an 

 artesian well. It is not yet established whether each of the two beds 

 has its peculiar species, but M. d'Orbigny thinks this probable, as the 

 whole number from this basin is so very great. He has found 228 

 species in it, whilst in the fauna of the Antilles there are only 118 

 and in the Adriatic Sea 140, though these are the two places where 

 they are most abundant at the present time. 



Out of the 228 species at Vienna, thirty-three, or fourteen per cent.. 



