52 GEOLOGICAL MEMOIRS. 



and the limestone [Liimstenen] . There it has a thickness of only a 

 few feet, and is characterized by a quantity of peculiar fossils. In the 

 hill at Faxoe it has a hitherto undetermined thickness, but which, for 

 reasons to be hereafter given, I fix at about 100 feet. For a long time 

 the underlying stratum was not known, and no other overlymg stratum 

 but the clay of the gravel-beds [Rullesteens-Leer] ; so that, when 

 I first pointed out the true geological relations of the strata, as now 

 usually adopted, I was obliged to support my views by the similarity 

 of the peculiar fossils. Two years since a limestone was discovered 

 in the Toftekule, which, like the upper Faxoe limestone at Stevnsklint, 

 contains its peculiar fossils, and is further characterized by its com- 

 position and the subordinate flint beds. The basement stratum is 

 not yet determined with precision ; but we have observed chalk at 

 many places around Faxoe, and we may therefore reasonably suppose 

 that the hill itself rests upon a raised chalk plateau. This idea is 

 strengthened by the fact of the base of the Faxoe Hill beiug sur- 

 rounded by a circle of springs, that probably have their source be- 

 tween the porous Faxoe limestone and the writing-chalk, which 

 latter, by reason of the closeness of its fine component particles, op- 

 poses the further percolation of water. 



At a spot in the Toftekule, between the limestone and the Faxoe 

 limestone, a perfectly distinct bed, composed of a yellow calcareous 

 sand [Kalksand], intrudes itself, and in this stratum globular masses 

 of dolomite occur. These bodies frequently attain more than a pound 

 weight, and are often united into irregular masses similar to those 

 mth which we are acquainted from other dolomite formxations, espe- 

 cially from Simderland in the north of England. The dolomite con- 

 tains no fossils, whilst the Faxoe limestone [Faxoekalk], the yellow 

 calcareous sand [Kalksand], and the limestone [Liimstenen], are 

 sarcharged v,ith rem^ains of marine animals. I may add, that the 

 flint of the lim^estone sometimes penetrates the globular dolomite 

 masses ; and that there is not found in the whole of Faxoe Hill the 

 least trace of a chemical plutonic action, except its being the seat of 

 springs. The effects of spiings that have degraded the calcareous 

 rock are everywhere visible. Wherever the coral-limestone is com- 

 posed of a mingled mass of sharp-sided fragments, these are super- 

 ficially covered with a coating of lime, yellow and ferruginous ; and 

 at many places the fossils become indistinguishable from a layer of 

 calcareous sinter. The thick limestone strata are perforated by nu- 

 merous large, perpendicular, tubular holes, having a diameter of 1-2 

 feet. The workmen call them chimneys ; they resemble the hollow 

 pipes that are frequently found iu the Danish and English chalk, the 

 origin of which is now usually and with great probability referred to 

 the action of excavating springs. 



These springs have formed the dolomite, not by directly depositing 

 carbonate of magnesia brought up from below in a soluble state, but 

 hy the carbonate of lime, held by them in susj)ension, decomposing the 

 magnesia-salt of the sea-ivater. And indeed the globular form al- 

 ways assumed by the Faxoe dolomite is a proof of its formation by 

 means of springs. One cannot indeed well conceive that these glo- 



