[ 158 ] 

 REVIEWS. 



Die Conchi/lien der Nord-Deutschen Tertidr-gebirges. The 

 Fossil Shells of the Tertiary Formations of the North of 

 Germany. By Prof. Beyrich. Berlin : 1853-4. Parts I. — 

 III. 



No one can have directed his attention to a physical map of the 

 North of Europe, excluding, of course, the Scandinavian penin- 

 sula, without being struck by the vast extent of the flat, or only 

 very slightly undulating country, which stretches from the south- 

 western frontiers of Belgium through Holland, Oldenburg, Hano- 

 ver and Prussia, into the very heart of Russia. This relatively 

 low flat region also comprises parts of Silesia and Prussian 

 Poland, with Pomerania and adjacent territories. No inconsider- 

 able portion of this tract consists of unproductive sands, turf 

 bogs, and dreary morasses, occasionally interrupted by districts of 

 diluvial clays, which have been converted into rich and productive 

 meadow lands. 



In later times the value of this district has been greatly in- 

 creased by the discovery of extensive tracts of brown coal, which 

 have been successively worked, and, especially in the neighbour- 

 hood of Magdeburg, and of Frankfort-on-the-Oder, supply the in- 

 habitants with a cheap and valuable fuel. The working of these 

 brown coal beds, however, has led to another, and, geologically 

 speaking, still more important discovery. These brown coal beds, 

 derived from the decay of the vegetation of vast lagoons and 

 swamps, form the basis of an interesting series of tertiary deposits, 

 some of which have proved to be unusually rich in the remains of 

 marine mollusca, showing in many districts a remarkable con- 

 nexion with the well-known tertiaries of Belgium and other coun- 

 tries. 



At first, however, they did not meet with all the attention they 

 deserved, and, although the contents of the Septaria clays of Berlin 

 and of Magdeburg, and those of the nodules of Sternberg, have 

 been long known, it is only since the Belgium tertiaries have been 

 worked out by the exertions of Sir Charles Lyell and Professor 

 Dumont, that the attention of the German geologists has been 

 directed to ascertaining their correct position in the tertiary system. 

 Amongst those who have been most active in working out these 

 results is Professor Beyrich of Berlin, the author of the work now 

 under our consideration. It will not, therefore, now be uninter- 

 esting to the readers of the Philosophical Journal, to have placed 

 before them a short outline of the work, so far as it is already 



