46 Geological Socieij/. 



England; and entering into detail on such points only as fell directly 

 under his own observation. He refers for an account of places not 

 visited by himself, to the general work of M. Bou6, and to various 

 local authorities. 



In citing, with much praise, the recently published maps and sec- 

 tions of Hoffmann on North-Western Germany, the English inquirer 

 is cautioned against the general application, in Germany, of that part 

 of the table of superposition, in which the coal measures are desig- 

 nated as some beds, subordinate to a vast thickness, 3000 or 4000 

 feet, of red sandstone and conglomerate, the whole of which are 

 grouped by Hoffmann under the one term of rothe-todte liegende. It 

 is shown, on the contrary, that, however well this classification may 

 apply to a small part of Germany, it is by no means the rule in the 

 N.E. part of Bavaria, in Bohemia, and Westphalia ; in all of which 

 countries there are successions in the carboniferous series, very simi- 

 lar to those in England, accompanied with large expansions of moun- 

 tain and transition limestones. The author, therefore, adopts that 

 view of Professor Sedgwick which restricts the name of rolhe-todie- 

 liegende to those sandstones and conglomerates which surmount the 

 carboniferous series, and separate it from the kupfer-schiefer and 

 magncsian limestone. 



In describing the kupfer-schiefer and overlying limestones, zech' 

 stein, &c. the author cites M. Klipstein's late work on the Wetterau 

 and Spessartj and he confirms the conclusions already drawn by Prof. 

 Sedgwick in his comparison and identification of the same strata 

 with the magnesian limestone of England. 



Neiv red sandstone series. — In this vast group the author, following 

 the classification of Humboldt, Hoffmann, and other modern writers, 

 points out that in Germany it is divided into three great systems ; an 

 inferior and a superior red sandstone, each abounding in variegated 

 marls, the one separated from the other by that great limestone for- 

 mation called the " muschelkalk " . The lowest system or biinter sand- 

 stein being described first in general terms, detailed sections of it are 

 then given from Alsace, where the author found it to be capped by 

 muschelkalk, and charged with some peculiar plants, chiefly Coniferae 

 and Ferns, first discovered in it by M. Voltz, and since described by 

 M. Adolphe Brongniart ; he likewise found in it many bivalve and 

 univalve shells, approaching very nearly in character to those of the 

 muschelkalk and superior formations, but, as well as the plants, 

 differing essentially from any fossils of the magnesian limestone and 

 inferior formations. The frequent occurrence of salt and gypsum is 

 noticed — numerous instances of great dislocations and elevations of 

 the beds are enumerated, particularly on the northern flank of the 

 Hartz — in the south of Hanover, a section across the Thuringerwald, 

 by a new road, is given — and places are cited where the red sandstone 

 is prismatized, in contact with trappean or igneous rocks. 



Muschelkalk.— This most important limestone formation, averaging 

 in thickness from 600 to 800 feet, is seen in Wirtembcrg, Bavaria, 

 Gotha, and Hanover, to rest upon the hunter sandslein, and to be 



capped 



