Vol.  49.] 
ST.  CACSIAN  STRATA  IN  SOUTHERN  TYROL. 
5 
One  definite  horizon  in  Triassic  strata  was  thus  ascertained  in  the 
Northern  Alps,  namely,  tne  Kossen  Beds  of  Upper  Keuper  age. 
The  next  important  group  of  fossiliferous  strata  to  be  observed 
was  a  series  of  marls  exposed  on  passes  and  mountain-meadows  in 
the  midst  of  the  dolomite-rocks  of  Southern  Tyrol. 
As  early  as  1834  Graf  Munster  1  described  the  favourable  ex¬ 
posure  of  these  strata  in  the  neighbourhood  of  St.  Cassian  in  Enne- 
berg ;  and  not  long  afterwards  he  and  Wissmann  2  published  their 
well-known  work,  in  which  they  described  400  species  from  the 
St.  Cassian  strata,  and  figured  them  in  a  masterly  manner. 
Klipstein 3  in  the  following  years  much  increased  the  number 
of  known  species.  The  remarkable  fact  was  that  no  single  species 
agreed  with  species  described  from  countries  north  of  the  Alps. 
In  1844  Emmrich 4  examined  the  strata  of  Enneberg  and  came 
to  the  conclusion  that  the  St.  Cassian  strata  were  at  any  rate  above 
the  Alpine  Muschelkalk,  the  age  of  which  had  shortly  before  been 
determined.  In  the  course  of  a  warm  discussion,  which  arose  after 
the  publication  of  Klipstein’s 5  work,  Bronu  6  wrote  a  short  editorial 
note  which  deserves  to  be  mentioned.  In  it  he  promulgated  the 
opinion,  still  current  among  many  geologists,  that  the  fauna  of 
St.  Cassian  had  lived  in  the  neighbourhood  of  rocks  and  cliffs  in  a 
shallow  sea,  where  coral-banks  were  numerous,  and  gasteropods, 
sponges,  brachiopods,  etc.  associated  under  conditions  favourable 
alike  to  all.  In  extra- Alpine  formations  of  nearly  all  ages  the  local 
occurrence  of  special  faunas,  and  more  particularly  of  the  fauna  of 
a  coral  sea,  had  frequently  been  proved.  And  Klipstein  was  so  far 
misled  by  receiving  from  the  collectors  some  Liassic  ammonites 
among  the  St.  Cassian  fossils,  and  by  a  general  resemblance  in  the 
characteristics  of  the  St.  Cassian  fauna  to  that  of  the  Upper 
Jurassic  Coral  Bag  at  Nattheim  or  Kelheim,  as  to  attribute  a 
Jurassic  age  to  the  St.  Cassian  strata.  Broun,  on  the  contrary, 
thought  from  palaeontological  evidence  that  the  St.  Cassian  strata 
were  equivalent  to  the  Muschelkalk.7 
Between  1850  and  1860  a  marked  advance  was  made  in  the 
knowledge  of  the  Triassic  strata  in  Northern  Tyrol  through  the 
energy  of  Austrian  and  German  geologists.  A  letter  from  Escher 
1  ‘  Ueber  das  Kalkmergellager  von  St.  Cassian  in  Tyrol  und  die  darin  vor- 
kommenden  Ceratiten,’  Neues  Jahrb.  1834,  p.  1. 
2  ‘  Beitrage  zur  Petrefaktenkunde,’  Bayreuth,  1841-43.  ■ 
3  ‘  Beitrage  zur  geologischen  Kenntniss  der  ostlichen  Alpen,’  Giessen,  1843. 
4  ‘  Ueber  die  Schichtenfolge  der  Flotzgebirge  des  Gaderthales,  der  Seisser 
Alpe,  und  insbesondere  bei  St.  Cassian,’  Neues  Jahrb.  1844,  pp.  791-803  ;  ‘  Ger- 
villienschichten  bei  Lienz,’  Zeitschr.  d.  Deutsch.  geol.  Gesellsck.  vol.  vi.  (1854) 
p.  668. 
0  ‘  Schichtenfolge 'in  Slid- Tirol,’  Amtl.  Ber.  liber  die  Naturforscherversamm- 
lung  zu  Mainz,  1843;  Neues  Jahrb.  1845,  pp.  799-801. 
u  Neues  Jahrb.  1845,  pp.  504-508. 
7  [In  1847  Sir  R.  Murchison  made  an  excursion  to  St.  Cassian,  with  von  Buch 
and  de  Yerneuil  (see  Q,.  J.  G.  S.  vol.  v.  (1849)  pp.  165-167 ;  where  reference  is 
made  to  the  work  of  Emmrich  and  others).  Mr.  W.  J.  Hamilton,  in  his  Anni¬ 
versary  Address  for  1855,  discussed  ‘  The  Position  of  the  Fossiliferous  Beds  of 
San  Casciano,’  Q.  J.  G.  S.  vol.  xi.  pp.  lxiii-lxix. — Ed.] 
