CRETACEOUS SYSTEM OF EASTERN GERMANY. 
261 
detailed mineral succession, the system, as a whole, in France is characterized 
throughout by certain fossils, some of which have a great vertical range when fol- 
lowed from one part of that country to another 1 . 
With a strong general analogy, if not identity as a geological group, derived 
from stratigraphical and zoological evidences, the Cretaceous system of Germany 
differs, in the lithological arrangement of its parts, both from that of England and 
of France. In England, as already stated, the upper half is calcareous, the lower 
arenaceous and argillaceous ; and if in the North of France the same general suc- 
cession may be said to exist, the South presents, as just mentioned, a group more 
or less calcareous throughout. In Central and Eastern Germany, on the contrary, 
the whole system is much more siliceous, calcareous matter being very sparingly 
distributed. To that country, therefore, we now invite a little preliminary atten- 
tion, seeing that it is intermediate between the best known western types and the 
chalk of Russia. 
In Central and Eastern Germany, then, the upper part only, as we believe, of the 
English lower greensand, is well represented by the Quader Sandstein, which con- 
stituting rocks of picturesque forms on the northern flank of the Hartz and in 
Saxony, spreads over a wide area in Bohemia, Silesia and Moravia, where with 
Alcyonia and some fossils of the west, it contains many new species of animal 
remains, some of which have been published, and also a copious Flora 2 . 
In Saxony the “ Lower Quader ” is a light-coloured siliceous sandstone, with 
occasional green grains and spots of black oxide of iron. The next superior band, 
or “ Lower Planer-kalk,” is a marly grit, sometimes a chert, at others a conglome- 
rate, and even a white, incoherent and ferruginous sand. The latter rock contains 
a few peculiar fossils, and some which in Britain have been found only in the white 
chalk, such as Hippurites, sharks’ teeth and palates of fishes, with Tercbratula 
gallina, T. oroides, &c. The next, or third group, ascending, termed the !t Middle 
Planer-kalk,” varies from a white and ferruginous sandstone containing some green 
grains, to a highly calcareous grit, in which the well-known fossils Inoceramus con- 
, S ee D’Archiac, Etudes sur la Formation Cretacee, 1844 ; also the instructive descriptions of M. Du. 
frdnoy. Descript, de la Carte Geol. de France, and La Paleontologie Fran ? aise of D’Orbigny. 
« See the G*a von Sachsen, by Dr. Geinitz ; also the memoir of M. Gdppert on certain plants. Another 
work is preparing on the deposits of this age in Moravia, by Professor Glocker of Breslau, in which many 
new forms of plants arc figured. The fossil contents of the cretaceous rocks of Bohemia are said to exceed 
500 species, part of which have been made known by Dr. Reuss (Kreide-gebilde des Westliclien-Bohmens, 
Prag. 1844). It is not our province here to allude to the Northern German types described by Romer. 
2 M 
