308 Professor Forbes's Account of 



NE. to SW., though at Kissingen it is nearly N. and S. 

 The lower part of the exposed soil is composed of buJiter- 

 sandstein, the hills are invariably capped with muschelkalk^ 

 in general imperfectly developed, with few and inconsiderable 

 organic remains. I have sought in vain for any trace of trap 

 in the neighbourhood ; only a few fragments I have been able 

 to find, and these probably were carried from the Rhongebirge. 

 The nearest fixed trap-rocks lie, I believe, beyond Platz, on 

 the road to Briickenau. Nevertheless, I consider the trap of 

 the Rhon to be undoubtedly connected with the appearance of 

 the springs of Kissingen, indicated especially by their mineral 

 character, and discharge of carbonic acid gas. 



The valleys of Kissingen and of Briickenau are nearly pa- 

 rallel, and are both probably fissures coeval with the elevation 

 of the adjacent mountain ranges. At Briickenau, powerful 

 chalybeate waters appear, as at Bocklet on the Saal a few miles 

 above Kissingen. Indeed, the number of riiineral springs 

 which accompany the course of the Saal would alone prove its 

 valley to be a fissure. We have three mineral springs at 

 Kissingen, all discharging carbonic acid ; then tracing the course 

 of the river upwards, there are several salt-springs at the lower 

 saline, next the Theresien brunnen, a sauerling or carbonic acid 

 spring; then the upper saline at Hausen, then other brine 

 springs at Kleinbrach and Grossenbrach ; then the steel springs 

 at Bocklet, four miles from Kissingen ; then a few miles farther, 

 still upon the Saal, salt-springs at Neustadt and Neuhaus, and 

 a Sauerling at Heustreu. 



Dr Balling in his Description of Kissingen, remarks that the 

 springs issue at natural clefts in the rocks,* and Kastner ob- 

 serves that they generally occur at the junction of the muschel- 

 kalk and bunter sandsteinrj* but both these statements must be 

 taken with some limitation. It is undoubtedly true, however, 

 that the medicinal springs of Kissingen owe their appearance 

 to a fault. As we walk NW. through the town, by the so- 

 called Kapelle or smaller Roman Catholic church, we come 



• Kissingens Bader und Heilquellen, p. 8. 

 t Kafitner's Archiv. Bd. viii. Hft. 3. 



