preserved Multicellular Algae, in some of which he could even detect
the lateral extension of zoospores. In the melaphyre of Zwickau
these Algae are coloured green by Delessite, and produce exactly the
impression of living plants. One species, found in abundance in
the milky quartz of the melaphyre of Zwickau, possesses bristle-like
terminal cells, which might easily be mistaken for the spicules
of Spongilla. The same quartz contains layers of algal
cells, which are remarkably intersected by straight spaces, looking
as if they had been sawn out. As the individual cells were
often cut through, the author supposed that these spaces were the
work of some animal; and he at last succeeded in finding an Infusorian
with its extended proboscis applied to a place which had
already been attacked. To this Infusorian he gives the name of
Rhynchopristes melaphyri. With these occurred a great quantity
of Rotatoria, which he refers to the neighborhood of Schrank's
genus Limnias, but places in a new genus, Trikolos, to be characterized
in a larger work. Of this he distinguishes two species,
T. melaphyri and T. thuringioe.
From bis observations the author infers, not that the so-called "eruptive rocks" are really sedimentary in their nature, but that these microscopic organisms actually live in the moisture permeating these eruptive rock-masses, and that they become imbedded and fossilized in a medium produced by the weathering of the rocks and infiltration of water,—in other words, that the primordial condition of the rock-masses in question has been subjected, and is still subject, to a process of metamorphism in the humid way. [W. S. D.]
On the Flysch of the Northern Margin of the Calcareous Alps between the Lakes of Traun and Laudach (Upper Austria). By Dr. E. Moysisovics and Dr. W. Schloenbach.
[Proceed. Imp. Geol. Instit. Vienna, June 30, 1868.]
The succession of deposits along a north and south line from the river Traun to Traunstein is as follows:—(1) moraines, (2) terraces of glacial drift, (3) Flysch, (4) Eocene green sandstones, (5) Upper Cretaceous marls, (6) conglomerates, (7) Liassic sandstones, and (8) ancient limestones and dolomites of the Traunstein. The valley called Gschliefgraben is evidently the result of the action of water on the soft and easily decomposable shaly Cretaceous marls, which are of a light-grey or rarely reddish tint, and alternate frequently with more compact layers. These marls are very similar in petrological character to Strombeck's North-German Upper Planer. The lower portions abound in Inocerami, Baculites, Hamites, Scaphites, and Ammonites; while Echinoderms, such as Ananchytes, Micraster, Holaster, &c., prevail in the upper parts. The facies is Upper Cretaceous(Planer of Gumbel), quite distinct from that of the true Gosau strata, and bears a close resemblance to the South-Alpine "Scaglia," or to the West-Alpine "Sewer-strata." The fauna is probably a compound of those of several palaeontological horizons.
