134 MR. H. KYNASTON ON THE [May 1 894, 



The upper unfossiliferous series seems to be more extensively 

 and massively developed in the Gosau district than in any other 

 locality. 



Thus, on the whole, the Gosau Beds of the Gosau Valley corre- 

 spond very well with those of Neue Welt, Gamsthal, and Zlam, and 

 in the same way it might be shown that they correspond with those 

 of St. Wolfgang and other areas. In short, the Gosau Beds might 

 be briefly described as a series of conglomerates, sandstones, and 

 marls, of varying thickness, constituting a complete formation 

 with a peculiar and at the same time extremely rich and varied 

 fauna, occurring in isolated trough-shaped areas in the Upper 

 Triassic and lthsetic limestones of the Eastern Alps. In the lower 

 part of the series, at the margins of the trough-shaped areas, are 

 the most varied alternations of rock, and also the greatest abundance 

 of organic remains, while in the upper part of the series, at least n 

 the Gosau district, the rocks are monotonous and barren. 



III. Paleontology of the Gosatj Beds. 



A rich and varied fauna is known from the Gosau Beds, and by 

 far the larger majority of the species are peculiar to them. The 

 corals, foraminifera, polyzoa, and eutomostraca have been described 

 by lleuss ; the lamellibranchiata by Zittel ; the gasteropoda by 

 Zekeli, Beuss, and Stoliczka ; the cephalopoda by Franz von Hauer ; 

 and the reptiles of Neue Welt by Bunzel and Seeley. (See Biblio- 

 graphy, p. 122.) 



Most of the organic remains occur in the fossiliferous marl-series, 

 while a good many are found in the Estuarine group and the lime- 

 stone-beds below it. Hippurites are extremely abundant, though local, 

 and build up great banks or reefs of hard limestone : Hipp, cornn- 

 vaccinum being the commonest species. Beef-building corals are 

 extremely plentiful, especially in the Nefgraben. It is interesting 

 to notice the almost entire absence of echinodermata, which are 

 so characteristic a feature in the Upper Cretaceous rocks of North- 

 western Europe, such as Holaster, Micraster, Echinoconus, etc. ; also 

 the great scarcity of cephalopoda and brachiopoda, while the lamelli- 

 branchiata and gasteropoda are extremely abundant. The reptile 

 fauna described by Seeley comes entirely from the Estuarine Beds 

 of Neue Welt. These beds also contain the remains of a highly 

 heterogeneous flora, comprising a true palm, together with Pecopteris 

 Zippei, Microzamia, Cunninghamites, and leaves of a dicotyledonous 

 tree resembling magnolia, etc., evidently the mingling of the 

 younger dicotyledonous type with a number of surviving older 

 forms. 



The first intimation of the existence of a freshwater fauna in these 

 beds was given by Dr. Homes, who in 1856 mentioned a Melanopsis 

 Pictileri among the Gosau fossils collected by Herr Pichler in the 

 Brandenberger Ache, in the Tyrol. This gasteropod was discovered 

 at two localities in the Brandenberger Ache. In one place it is found 

 in great quantities with Chemnitzia Beyvich (Zek.), while Nerincea 



