STEVENSON— INTERRELATIONS OF FOSSIL FUELS. 453 



change abruptly in character as well as in thickness. Conglomerates 

 prevail at the southeast, but in the middle and northwest portions 

 the rocks are chiefly sandstones and shales. He assigns the whole 

 section to Rothliegende, there being no Upper Coal Measures in the 

 region. The succession is : 



Upper Tambacher beds 



Middle Oberhofer beds 



Goldbauter beds 

 Lower Mansbacher beds 



Gehrener beds 



Lebacher beds 

 Cuseler beds 



The Gehrener beds contain much eruptive matter and arkose ; 

 red and black shale with gray sandstone and breccia prevail; coal 

 smuts and seams were seen near Gehren and a few other localities. 

 The Mansbacher beds have no eruptives, the rocks being sandstone 

 and clay shale with some thin seams of coal. At one time, six of 

 these seams were mined. The flora of these shales was supposed 

 to be that of the Upper Ottweiler (Stephanien), but it is predomi- 

 nantly Rothliegende, though containing many Ottweiler forms. 

 Walchia occurs in sandy clay shale but never in the softer, plant- 

 rich shales. The Goldbauter beds have much eruptive material in 

 the western portion but none in the eastern. Midway in the section 

 is a thin seam of coal. This is the highest, there being no coal in 

 the Oberhofer or Tambacher beds. 



Dannenberg^^ cites v. Dechen as stating that coal occurs in the 

 Middle and Lower Rothliegende. The important locality is on the 

 Bavarian border near Stockheim and Neuhaus, where a seam, 2.90 

 to 29 meters thick, is mined. When very thick, the coal is notably 

 dirty, but washing removes most of the impurities and the coal, thus 

 treated, is an excellent fuel. The output of washed coal in 191 1 was 

 50,000 tons and plans were under way to increase it to 240,000. 



The Pfalz-Saarhrikk-Lorraine Coal Field. — This, known as the 

 Saarbriick basin, is comparatively insignificant in area but is amaz- 

 ingly rich in the number and availability of its coal seams. The 

 space, in which seams are exposed or under reasonably thin cover, is 



^8 Geologie der Steinkohlenlager, p. 229. 



PROC. AMER. PHIL. SOC, VOL. LIX, CC, DEC. 21, I92O. 



