Page:Transactions of the Geological Society, 1st series, vol. 4.djvu/323

 it is almost wholly calcareous, containing little or no siliceous matter.

Geologists will of course be anxious to learn whether these beds, occupying a situation similar to that of the Paris strata, are identical with any of them. I am myself too little acquainted with the latter to form any opinion on the subject. I am inclined to think however that the Maestricht rock differs from all the beds which form the Paris basin.

It would be departing too much from common language to call it chalk; but the gradual transition of the chalk into the freestone, and the separation of the strata from each other by parallel beds of flint, seem to be sufficient reasons for including it in the chalk formation.

When nearly at the southern extremity of St. Pierre I crossed over to the right bank of the Meuse to examine a rock which rises very boldly near a little town called Visé. This rock I found to resemble the limestone of Derbyshire, containing all the fossils characteristic of that formation, and like it frequently passing into chert. The fossils most abundant are several species of anomiæ and entrochi: the latter are more particularly abundant in the chert. In some pieces I also found that species of coal which is called anthracite included in veins of calcareous spar.

In the country round Liege, distant about two leagues S.W. of this place, there are (as is well known) extensive collieries.