STEVENSON— INTERRELATIONS OF THE FOSSIL FUELS. 73 



and have the features suggesting deposition by floods, which re- 

 peatedly overspread the continuously growing peat. They bear 

 close resemblance to the partings seen in most coal beds. At Gross- 

 weil, near the Kochelsee, the Schieferkohle consists of easily sepa- 

 rated layers of brown coal, twigs and wood fragments with others 

 of leaves of grasses and mosses. The composition is made clear by 

 solution of caustic potash. Sphagnum is the chief constituent of 

 the moss layers ; in others, pollen is abundant with small nests of 

 fibrous peat and an alga. The deposit is distinctly one of peat and, 

 at all localities, the coal-like and the peat-like portions pass gradu- 

 ally into each other. 



Von Ammon^^ has given some notes respecting the distribution 

 of Bavarian Schieferkohle. He states that a diluvial formation 

 extends along the Loisach in an area of 9 by 2 kilometers between 

 the Murnauer AIoos and the Kochelsee. In this is embedded the coal 

 bed mined near Gross weil (about 40 miles south-southwest from 

 Miinchen), which he thinks is a forested Flachmoor of intra- 

 morainal age. It was opened at one time near Ohlstadt, where it is 

 double and about 1.6 meter thick. At 10 meters above is another 

 bed showing coal, 0.7 and 0.6 meter, separated by a parting of one 

 meter. The coal is an earthy brown coal with inclusion of lignite. 

 The Schieferkohle of Sonthofen varies much but is often several 

 feet thick. At Josephsfelde, the thickness is from one to 3 meters; 

 at Imbergtobal, there are two beds, three meters apart ; the lower 

 is from 2 to 5 meters thick and upper about 1.5 meter and impure. 



Schieferkohle occurs in extensive deposits within Upper Austria, 

 Styria and Tyrol. Lorenz"* reported upon the conditions observed 

 by him in the Hausrucker mountains of Upper Austria. The suc- 

 cession is : Fragmentary material, Kohle-Tegel system, Tegel, and 

 the deposits appear to be conformable. The coal-marl system is 

 from 100 to 150 feet thick and at most localities it shows three coal 

 beds. The top and bottom beds are 7 to 8 feet thick, but the 

 middle one is 12 feet. The lower beds are separated by a small 



92 L. V. Ammon, " Bayerische Braunkohlen unci ihre Verwertung," 

 Miinchen, 191 1, pp. 9, 10, 63. 



'■^^ J. R. Lorenz, " Ueber die Enstehung der Hausrucker Kohlenlager," 

 Sitz.-Bcr. k. Akad. IViss. IVicn, Bd. XXII., 1857, PP. 660-664. 



