MEYER ON THE SAURIANS OF THE MUSCHELKALK. 45 
Murchison and Verneuil, consider that the Vosges sandstone is not 
triassic, but believe it to be older, and to belong to the zechstein,—a 
view against which Alberti in his ‘Monographie’ (p. 329) enters a 
protest, and does not admit of its division from the bunter sandstone. 
It was formerly impossible to decide on the age of this formation from 
petrifactions ; but lately Dr. E. Rehman showed me, from the Fiirs- 
tenberg collection at Donaueschingen, a petrifaction from the true 
Vosges sandstone of the Schwarzwald, the first, so far as I am aware, 
that has been discovered, in which I have recognised a Labyrinthodon, 
an animal of a family hitherto only found in the trias, so that Alberti’s 
view of the age of the Vosges sandstone may be considered as proved. 
I shall afterwards more particularly describe this labyrinthodon. 
There are cases where the bunter. sandstone can scarcely be distin- 
guished from sandstones which really belong to the zechstein; and 
when not covered by the muschelkalk, it is still more difficult to sepa- 
rate it from the keuper. The members of the bunter sandstone, 
sometimes above a thousand feet thick, which have been observed in 
the south-west and north-west of Germany, are sandstones remarkable 
for their fine grain, slate-clays, roestone (in the Harz), gypsum and 
dolomite,—the latter more as subordinate members. In the Vosges 
and the Haardt, the bunter sandstone, covered by the muschelkalk, 
rests on the new red (Rothliegende). The bunter sandstone of that 
locality, and that on the right bank of the Rhine in the Schwarzwald 
and the Odenwaid, are very similar. In the quarries near Sulzbad in 
the department of the lower Rhine, Alberti found the lowest member 
to be a red sandstone with impressions of plants, passing above into 
green and red slate-clays, and then slate-clays alternating with sand- 
stone, sandy marls with dolomitic beds and red slate-clays, sandy 
marls with masses of argillaceous sandstone and shells of the muschel- 
kalk, dolomite with sandy marls, and above the dolomitic marls of 
the lower muschelkalk (the Wellenkalk). In the north-west of 
Germany the lower sandstone seems to be wanting, and the zechstein 
is immediately covered by the bunter sandstone, forming slaty clays 
with subordinate beds of roestone, the latter with gypsum, sometimes 
excluding the slaty clays altogether. It is covered by a fine-grained 
sandstone, which passes above into a thick bed of slaty clay. 
Petrifications were at first asserted to be either altogether wanting, 
or very rare in the bunter sandstone. Fossil plants have only re- 
cently been known in Wurtemberg. The remains of Cetacez, quoted 
by Voltz, from this formation at Wasselonne, and which are pre- 
served in the museum at Strasburg, appear not to be fossil, which 
Hermann, from whom the statement comes, has not observed*. At 
Pyrmont, and near Bale, fossil bones have actually occurred in the 
bunter sandstone. The first bones which I examined from this for- 
mation were given to me by Prof. Alex. Braun, from the Baben- 
hausen quarries near Zweibriicken, and seemed to belong to an animal 
related to the Plesiosaurus. Still more important are the remains 
sent to me by Voltz and W. P. Schimper from the Strasburg Museum, 
which were found in this deposit at Sulzbad, and prove the presence 
* Cuvier, Oss. Foss. (4 ed.) vol. iii. p. 374, note. 
