514 THE WONDERS OF GEOLOGY. Lect. V. 



schists, is that of Solenhofen, near Pappenheim.* The 

 cream-coloured limestone of this quarry has long been 

 known to contain organic remains of great beauty and 

 interest. Crustaceans allied to the Lobster, Shrimp, Cray- 

 fish, &c. are often met with, and many specimens are 

 figured by authors. Knorr's splendid work, " Monumens 

 des Catastrophes que le Globe terrestre a essuie" contains 

 numerous coloured representations of these fossils. The 

 Prawn here figured (Lign 115) shows the extraordinary 

 state of preservation of these remains. A Saurian, about 

 three feet in length, allied to the crocodile, has been found 

 at Solenhofen ; and Count Munster has collected many 

 species of Pterodactyles, saurians, and tortoises ; upwards 

 of sixty species of fish; forty-six of crustaceans, and 

 twenty-six of insects. There are but few shells and 

 plants, and these are all marine. 



Sir H. De la Beche remarks, that the fact of the greatest 

 number of fossil insects yet noticed in the oolite, having 

 been found where the remains of the Pterodactyles princi- 

 pally occur, seems to establish a connexion between these 

 creatures, not merely accidental ; and that it is probable 

 the whole of the deposits of this local group of the Jura 

 limestone, may have been effected on a coast where the 

 water was not deep, and on the shores of which the flying 

 reptiles chased their insect prey.f 



21. Carboniferous Strata of the Oolite. — In the 

 tertiary system of Provence, we noticed the occurrence of 

 beds of coal with limestone containing fresh-water shells 

 and crustaceans (ante, p. 260) ; and in the lacustrine 

 deposits of the Rhine, accumulations of brown coal and 

 lignite (p. 278). In the Wealden of the South-east of 



* Oss. Foss. torn. v. 



f A beautiful fossil Dragon-fly from Solenhofen (in the rich collec- 

 tion of the Marquess of Northampton) is figured in Medals of Creation, 

 vol. ii. p. 574. 



