Page:Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society of London, vol. 26.djvu/500

 Waldheimia celtica, Mor. sp.

Terebratula oblonga, Sow. (T. biplicata, var. acuta, Von Buch).

— faba, Sow.

— tamarindus, Sow.

— Puscheana, Rom.

— sella, Sow.

Rhynchonella varians, Schloth. (?)

— multiformis, Rom.

— Renauxiana, D'Orb.

Crania irregularis, Rom. (Crania subquadratus, K. & D.).

Serpula Phillipsi, Rom.

— antiquata, Sow.

Pollicipes Hausmanni, Dunk. & Koch.

Asterias (?) Dunkeri, Rom.

Cidaris variabilis, Dunk. & Koch.

Pentacrinus annulatus, Rom.

Synhelia Meyeri, K.& D. sp.

Sponges.

The railway from Kreiensen to Holzminden, which was constructed between 1861 and 1864, passes along the south-western foot of the Hils-chain, and in a series of cuttings yields a number of valuable sections, which have been fully described by Dr. Brauns *.

Underneath the " Flammenmergel," presenting the usual characters and containing Gault fossils, occurs the " Hilssandstein," a thick series of sands, usually soft and light-coloured, but occasionally greenish and containing an argillaceous matrix, at other times with veins and partings of a deep brown colour. In places, these sands are indurated into stone ; and a valuable building-material is quarried from the upper part of the series. In the lower parts occur beds of ironstone, which are worked by open adits driven into the hill-side. This series of sands, which is over 300 feet in thickness, resembles in a most striking manner the Shanklin sands of the south of England and the Upper Neocomian sands of Lincolnshire. Unfortunately the Hilssandstein has yielded but very few fossils, only a few fragments of Hamites, and one Ammonite (A. Milletianus, D'Orb.)† having been recorded from it. M. von Strombeck is inclined to refer these beds to the Gault ; but I cannot help thinking that they will be found to represent the upper part of our " Lower Greensand" — that is, the highest beds of the Upper Neocomian.

Underneath the Hilssandstein occur beds of light- coloured tenacious clay, 70 feet thick, containing Belemnites Ewaldi, von Stromb., Isocardia angulata, Phil., a Nucula, and a small Pleurotomaria. These beds are probably on the same horizon as our Atherfield Clay and the " Cement-beds " of Speeton ; that is, the base of the Upper Neocomian.

Beneath these we find beds of dark-coloured clay, 170 feet thick, interstratified in their lower portion with layers made up of grains of hydrated peroxide of iron. These strata, which rest on the Wealden, yield a Middle -Neocomian fauna, including : —

Belemnites lateralis, Phil.

Ammonites noricus, Schloth.

— — bidichotomus, Leym. ?

Ancyloceras (Crioceras) Duvali, Lev.

Terebratula sella, Sow.

Waldheimia celtica, Mor.

Rhynchonella depressa, D'Orb.

5. The Hartz. — Along the northern foot of the Hartz range, between Harzburg and Goslar, there occur, as shown in the maps


 * "Die Stratigraphie und Palaontographie des sudostlichen Theiles der Hilsmulde" u. s. w., Palaeontographica, xiii. p. 75 (Jan. 7, 1865).

† This fossil occurs, according to M. Cornuel, both in the Gault and in the Neocomian of France.