386 Mines of Saxovy. 



MINES OF SAXONY. 



M.de Boiin.'ucl, engineer of tlie French mines, has recently pub* 

 lished in Frcncli a " Geognostic Essay on the Erzegebirge, or the 

 Metalliferous Mountains of Saxony." The author has substituted 

 the word seos^no'^y , wliich is used by the Germans for that of geo- 

 logy, employed hitherto by the French, because he thinks it bet- 

 ter adapted to express the science which is confined to the de- 

 scription of the nature and the peculiar arrangement of soils. 



The country which M. de Bonnard has examined, comprises 

 not only that part of the Saxon territory designated by the name 

 of the circle of the Erzegebirge, but also a portion of the circle 

 of Misnia, in the environs of Dresden, as well as the high moun- 

 tains which separate Saxony from Bohemia, and some points of 

 tlie latter kingdom, on the southern slope of the ridge. " It is 

 one of the most interesting countries," M. de Bonuard observes, 

 " of all those which a traveller can visit under a. geognostic point 

 of view ; it contains v/ithin a vlmv limited space a great quantity 

 of different soils ; the ?mmcrous mining concerns in full activity 

 facilitate our observation : lastly, it is the constant theme of mi- 

 neralogists, who visit it to learn from M. Werner hinlself the art 

 of observing nature." 



M. de Bonnard passed several months in Erzegebirge, and per- 

 sonally explored its stratification in company with some of the 

 most distinguished mineralogists of the continent. He refers the 

 vliole constitution or arrangement of the Erzegebirge to three 

 principal groups, each having a particular centre, and composed 

 of rocks the arrangement of which has no connexion with that of 

 the other groups, at least as to the primitive soils which consti- 

 tute them essentially. 



The first, which lie calls group or system of the east, seems to 

 be composed of rocks grouped around a nucleus of granite, si- 

 tuated near and to the eastward of Freyberg. 



The second, which he calls system of the south-u'^st, is com- 

 posed of rocks one part of which is visibly supported on the gra- 

 nite of the north of Bohemia and the south-west of the Erzege- 

 birge. 



The third, to which he gives the name of group of the north- 

 west, is formed almost entirely of ejirite [weigstein). which seems 

 grouped around a hidden nucleus situated between the Zschop- 

 pau and the Mulda. 



Between these groups of ancient soils we meet with more re- 

 cent formations, which cover the slopes of the former and fill the 

 intervals which separate them. M. de Bonnard describes sepa- 

 rately those three systems of stratification, by examining for each 

 of them successively the different kinds of soil which compose 

 ' them. 



