1 838. J 



P'Tof. Ehrenherg on Fossil Infusoria, 



153 



found a great quantity of iron, with remains of silex. This substance 

 consists, Hke the marsh-ochre, of articulated threads, which separate 

 into single members : it resembles also very much the Gaillonella fer- 

 ruginea. These Gaillohellee are used in Colberg for iron-colour in 

 house-painting. The circumstance that this production of the salt- 

 spring collects on the surface of a yellowish green colour, and after- 

 wards sinks to the bottom and changes into yellow, determines per- 

 haps a special and not otherwise characterized species of the same 

 genus.* Thus the siliceous contents of the Raseneisen, and the in- 

 combustible organic form of the minute bodies constituting the ochre 

 which surrounds it, make it highly probable that here also an organic 

 relation exists through infusorial formation, though only so far as to 

 form after death, by the large proportion of iron they contains a cen~ 

 tral point or nucleus, to which all other iron in solution immediately 

 around it is attracted. 



The animals which I found in the above-mentioned fossils are the 

 following species : 



I. Nine species in the stone from Franzensbad. 



!• Navicula viridis, as chief mass ; 2. N. gibha ; 3. N. fidva ; 

 4. N. Librile, all freshwater animalcules, very common in 

 the neighbourhood of Berlin 5. IV. viridula ; 6. N. striatu- 

 la ; both sea animalcules now living : the first I know of only 

 from the Baltic, near Wismar ; the second from near Havre 

 in France, and in the mineral water of Carlsbad 7. Gam- 

 phonema parado.xum ; 8. G. clavatum : both species now 

 common near Berlin ; — 9. A species of Gaillonella, G. vari- 

 ans ? of which I have hitherto seen only fragments. 



II. In the peat-bog of Franzensbad I found, around the Kieselgiihr, 

 five species : 



1. Navicula granulata, as the most usual form, not occurring in 

 the Kieselguhr ; 2. N. viridis, rare ; 3. Bacillaria vulga- 

 ris ? ; 4. Coccone'is undulata ; both sea animals ;-~5. Gam" 

 phonema paradoxum (clavatum }), still found near Berlin. 

 Only two forms are common to the turf and the Kieselguhr, which 

 is found in it, and which thence probably owes its origin to a different 

 period. 



III. I found in the Kieselguhr of the Isle of France several species : 



* Another quantity of this mass sent from the Diirrenberg salt-works has detennined 

 this question, since it appears in this that these Uving animals (?) also are always yellow • 

 that in dying they rise to the surface of a grayish green colour (protoxide ofiron)^ and 

 in sinkinj? to the bottom they again take the yellow colour. 



