262 
CRETACEOUS SYSTEM OF EASTERN GERMANY. 
centricus and Ostrea vesicularis are most abundant. The fourth division, the “ Upper 
Planer,” is a dull gray, sandy, calcareous rock, containing sometimes as much as 
75 per cent, of carbonate of lime. This band is peculiarly characterized by Hamites 
and Scaphites with Terehratula carnea, T. Mantellii, certain large Inocerami common 
in the chalk of England, numerous fishes ; and altogether 160 species, at least, 
have been collected from it in Saxony alone, of which the Spondylus spinosus ( Pla - 
giostoma, Sow.) is perhaps the most abundant of the forms well known in the chalk 
of other countries. Lastly, the fifth or highest division, termed the “ Uppermost 
Quader,” is a siliceous building-stone, often occupying the table-land of lofty hills, 
which containing very little calcareous matter, has not afforded many fossils, though 
among them are Hamites which distinctly connect it with the underlying band ; 
and others, such as Pecten asper and Lima multicostata (Geinitz), which some ob- 
servers might consider to be characteristic of the greensand below the chalk. 
Geologists can scarcely hear of this Saxon succession 1 and compare it with that 
so lucidly pointed out by Fitton and other English authors 2 , without perceiving that 
whilst the group of organic remains of both countries is on the whole the same, 
the detailed lithological order in which the beds succeed each other, and the fossils 
by which they are distinguished, are essentially different. 
In Saxony and the surrounding tracts of Germany, where there is no true chalk, 
we see several species running through the whole series. The Pecten 5-costatus 3 , 
for example, is found in every one of the five German subdivisions, and the Inoce- 
ramus Mytiloides of the lower chalk (never yet seen in the English greensands), 
occurs in the lowest and one of the highest of the Saxon beds. Valuable, therefore, 
1 This succession is given on the authority of Dr. Geinitz of Dresden, who has just added to his former 
publications an interesting description, with figures, of the fossils of certain cretaceous rocks upon the 
frontiers of Saxony, Bohemia and Silesia, which were recently traversed by Mr. Murchison (Heuscheur- 
gebirge near Glatz, and Kieslingwalda near Habelschwerdt) . In his list are enumerated many species well 
known in England, as characteristic of the lower greensand series, among which are Trigonia aleeformis, 
Sow., Pecten quadncostatus, ib., Cardium Hillamm, ib., Venus faba, ib„ Terehratula sella, ib„ Cuculleea 
glabra, ib., Littorina conica, ib., Turritclla granulala, ib., Ostrea macroptera, ib., &c., &c. Others, from the 
same localities, and which do not there appear to lie in higher positions, are, on the contrary, in England, 
characteristic of the chalk only ; viz. Terehratula striatula, Mantell, T. octoplicata, Sow., T. Mantel- 
lianea, ib., T. pisum, ib., T. ovoides, ib., with Hamites elliplicus, Mantell, several fishes, &c., &c. 
* See Fitton’s memoir on the strata below the chalk, Geol. Trans, vol. iv. p. 103 ; and Mantell’s 
Geology of the South-east of England. 
3 M. D’Archiac also shows that the Pecten 5-costatus ranges through all his four divisions of the creta- 
ceous formation of the south-west of France. 
