36 
MISS  OGILVIE  ON  THE  WENGEN  AND 
[Feb.  1893, 
On  the  Misurina  Alpe,  the  fossiliferous  strata  are  identical  with 
those  of  the  Seeland  Valley,  and  they  dip  eastward  beneath  a  low 
range  of  hills  towards  Bimbianco.  In  the  stream  at  the  bend  of 
the  Rimbianco  Valley  towards  Monte  Pian  I  found  some  particu¬ 
larly  fine  corals  and  sponges,  small  cidarid  spines,  and  bivalves 
in  dark  earthy  marls.  Above  these  St.  Cassian  strata  one  finds 
dolomite  in  position  on  the  low  hills  forming  the  Misurina  and 
Pvimbianco  watershed ;  it  occurs  on  the  eastern  slopes  as  blocks, 
sometimes  massed  together  like  huge  ruins  of  a  continuous  wall. 
The  further  occurrence  of  fossiliferous  horizons  below  the  Schlern  1 
Dolomite  of  the  Diirrenstein  massif  is  on  the  steep  slopes  between 
Stolla  and  Briickele  and  on  Flodiger  Wiese.  Just  above  Stolla, 
at  the  2000-metre  contour,  a  thick  bed  of  Cipit  Limestone  forms 
a  prominent  rock  on  the  wooded  slopes.  It  belongs  to  the  highest 
horizon  of  the  St.  Cassian  Beds.  Lithologically,  the  beds  have  the 
same  character  as  in  the  Seeland  Valley,  but  except  at  one  or  two 
favourable  points,  such  as  the  Stolla  and  the  Briickele  Alpen, 
the  fossils  do  not  weather  out  in  the  same  abundance.  This  arises 
partly  from  the  steepness  of  the  incline  on  which  they  are  exposed, 
and  from  the  constantly  increasing  screes  of  debris  from  the  over- 
lying  rocks  ;  largely  also  because  a  scrubby  vegetation  of  larch  and 
dwarf-pine  prevents  the  free  exposure  of  the  fossiliferous  marls. 
Within  the  last  two  years  new  landslips  have  occurred  j-ust  south 
of  Stolla,  and  the  St.  Cassian  Beds  are  now  laid  open  below  the 
Diirrenstein  over  a  considerable  area — so  that  in  course  of  time 
fossils  of  that  age  may  be  readily  collected  there. 
This  case  I  emphasize,  because  it  is  analogous  to  several  others, 
where  the  St.  Cassian  Beds  underlie  the  Schlern  Dolomite  in  their 
normal  thickness,  but  are  apparently  poor  in  fossils,  and  where  no 
favourable  outcrop  on  a  broad  4  Alp  ’  or  1  Wiese  ’  is  afforded  to 
them  in  the  immediate  vicinity. 
The  Wengen  Beds  are  not  exposed  on  the  Misurina  hills  or  in 
the  Seeland  Valley ;  but  towards  Prags  the  Wengen  Series  follows 
conformably  below  the  St.  Cassian.  The  distribution  of  the  beds  is 
shown  in  Map  C,  facing  p.  32,  and  in  figs.  10,  11,  &  12  (pp.  34 
&  35). 
They  are  not  of  an  ashy  character,  as  in  the  exposures  farther 
west,  but  are  interbedded  shales  and  limestones,  containing  few 
fossils  except  in  certain  brown,  banded  shales  full  of  Posidonomya 
wengensis  and  more  rarely  containing  specimens  of  characteristic 
ammonites  and  Halobia  Lommeli.1  The  thin  and  unevenly-bedded 
limestone,  often  with  a  micaceous  glance  on  the  bedded  surface, 
the  thick  blue  limestone  with  strongly  marked  calcite- veins,  and  the 
comparative  poverty  of  fossils,  are  the  chief  features  of  the  Wengen 
Beds  in  this  locality.  On  the  other  hand,  the  Buchenstein  Series 
below  them  is  more  fossiliferous  than  in  the  western  districts •  as 
already  mentioned,  it  also  includes  but  little  ashy  rock. 
1  See  Loretz,  Zeitschr.  d.  Deutsch.  geol.  Gesellsch.  vol.  xxvi.  (1874)  p.  373. 
