Summary. 



The Swedish Colonus shale, only known of from Skåne, is of very great 

 extent and certainly also of a considerable thickness, but its stratigraphy as well 

 as its paleontology are hitherto only little known. As the knowledge about these 

 matters is of a great importance for parallelizing the younger Silurians of Sweden, 

 not only between themselves but also with those of foreign countries, I have begun 

 a more complete examination of this formation. But a thorough revision of the 

 many different deposits takes indeed a lot of time. On that account, I have con- 

 sidered it advantageous to publish my results in the form of successive descriptions 

 of the examined localities. In consequence thereof, I will here, after a review of 

 the present state of our knowledge on the Swedish Colonus shale, as the first part 

 give a description of the locality at Smedstorp mentioned as carrying Colonus 

 shale. First when the results of the partial examinations are in hand, it will be 

 possible to sum up all particulars. 



The term »Colonus shale» was in 1889 introduced by Törnquist for all the 

 Scauian graptolite shales younger than the Testis shale. Tullberg had (1880) 

 separated this formation under the designation »Cardiola shale». The name »Colonus 

 shale» was later on considered equal to »Cardiola shale» and has now almost 

 displaced the other one. It is to remember that, just as the name »Cardiola shale» 

 assigns formations of which Cardiola interrupta Sow. is characteristic, the denomi- 

 nation »Colonus shale» is applied to formations in which Monograptus colonus Barr. 

 has been found. For the respective formations in question Tüllberg and Törn- 

 quist certainly were assuming the same lower limit. 



What again concerns the upper limit, the fixation of this has changed con- 

 siderably during the times and the matter is not yet quite clear. Tullberg con- 

 sidered the »Cardiola shale» to be, at least partly, equivalent to the Öved-Ramsäsa 

 formation (to a large extent consisting of sandstones and limestones), which opinion, 

 however, later examinations have proved not to be true. Already in 1888 Eich- 

 städt tried to show, that the Colonus or Cardiola shale formed the basis of the 

 Oved-Ramsâsa formation and, accordingly, would not for some part be equivalent 

 to this, an opinion to which also later authors have given further evidences. But 



