MUSCHELKALK OF SPITI AND PAINKUANDA. 
59 
had furnished the basis for the classification of the Muschelkalk by 
Griesbach and Uiener in which they had been particularly unfortunate.^ 
Those two authors distinguished a thin lower division with Brachio- 
poda (Rhynchonella GrieshacJii), corresponding to No. 1, and a thick 
upper division, corresponding to beds Nos. 2, 3, 4 in A. v. KrafEt's 
classification, but did not appreciate the stratigraphical importance of 
the horizon No. 3, because the fossils from it became mixed up with 
those of other horizons in the collections made by the expedition in 
1892. Thus two different brachiopod faunae were included in Diener's 
list of species from bed No. 1, the fauna of RhyncJionella Griesbachi 
which actually belongs to this horizon, and the fauna of Spiriferina 
Stracheyi, which has its habitat in the shaly beds (No. 3) above the 
Niti limestone. •'- 
This mistake was combined with a second one from which consider- 
able confusion arose. It was the supposed discovery of a specimen of 
Keyserlingites (group of Ceratites subrobusti Mojs.) in the Hedenstroemia 
beds, for which, consequently the name " Subrobustus beds " was then 
proposed by Diener. Since the actual layer of this ammonite was 
fixed in the beds with Spiriferina Stracheyi by A. v. Krafft, not in the 
upper division of the Lower Trias, as suggested by Diener, the name 
" Subrobustus beds " had to be dropped afterwards. 
The two brachioj)od faunae of the zones of Rhynchonella Griesbachi 
and Spiriferina Stracheyi (beds Nos. 1 and 3) were first distin- 
guished by A. Bittner, ' but his view only depended upon palseonto- 
logical evidence. Their existence was, however, soon afterwards con- 
firmed by geological researches, thus proving the fact that the testi- 
mony of fossils can always be relied on to the extent and precision 
which a palaeontologist's ability to interpret them will permit. 
In 1899 A. V. Krafft ' ascertained the presence of the brachiopod- 
bearing horizon with Spiriferina Stracheyi Salt, in Spiti between the 
underlying mass of the Nodular limestone (Niti limestone) and the 
1 Jahrb k, k. Geol. Eeichsansi., 1899, p. 692. 
- In tlie classification adojited by the Geological 8ui-vey of India, this is known 
as the " Nodular limestone " (see Buiraid and Hayden, Geography and Geology of 
the Himalaya and Tibet, p. 239). — Editoe. 
3 C. Diener: Ergebnissc einer gcologischen Expedition in den Cent ral-Himdlaya, 
Denkschr. kais. Akad., LXII, 1895, pp. 571, 572. 
General Report, Geol. Surv. of India for 1899-1900, p. 202. 
( 260 ) 
