1822.] Mr. Weaver’s Geological Remarks. 83 
transition tracts consist of clayslate, greywacke, greywacke 
slate, and flinty slate, contaiming subordinately limestone, iron- 
shot sandstone with impressions of shells, and beds or masses 
of trap, porphyry, and amygdaloid. 
round this mountainous region are drawn the principal floetz 
an or formations of Werner, not concentrically disposed, as 
as been sometimes falsely represented, but of unequal distribu- 
tion ; namely, 1. his old or first floetz sandstone, or rothe todt- 
liegende, formation; 2. his first limestone formation; 3. his 
-second or new red sandstone formation; 4. his second or shell 
limestone formation ; 5. his third or quadersandstone formation. 
Of these, the first four ‘constitute the particular object of Freies- 
leben’s elaborate work, and of three of them, viz. the second, 
third, and fourth, being the equivalents of the magnesian lime 
stone (including the calcareous conglomerate), the new red 
sandstone, and the shell limestone of England, I have given a 
detailed abstract in the Annals of Philosophy. Of the rothe 
todtliegende formation, I have spoken only in general terms, 
from the condensed manner in which it was necessary to treat 
the comparative view of that subject, in the confined space 
allotted in a periodical journal. Let us now consider it more in 
detail. 
The rothe todtliegende is described by Freiesleben as the old 
sandstone formation, which contains casually (though rarely in 
Mausfeld and Thuringia), traces of coal or coaly shale, and inci- 
dentally likewise beds of limestone, trap, and porphyry (vol. 1. 
. 32—34, and 43—46), being also in some parts of its extent 
in direct connexion and association with the ccal formation, 
properly so called; and hence to this also the term rothe todt- 
liegende is extended (vol. iv. p. 191—-198). In a confined 
sense, therefore, rothe todtliegende signifies the old red sand- 
stone with its subordinate beds, and in a large sense it compre- 
hends the coal formation also, thus representing the whole car- 
boniferous series. It is employed in both these senses | by 
Freiesleben, and other German authors. To obviate, however, 
all misconception to which this latitude of expression may give 
rise, I shall, in the following pages, separate the old red sand- 
stone, in the limited sense, from the coal formation, unless where 
1 may employ the term carboniferous series as indicative of the 
whole. But in a few cases I shall quote Freiesleben’s own 
words to show the latitude in which he uses the term rothe todt- 
liegende. 
| Relative Position —The carboniferous series is disposed in the 
form of a crescent, embracing the foot of the transition tract of 
the Hartz, on its north-eastern, eastern, and south-eastern sides, 
ranging thus in a circuit of about 63 miles, from the vicinity of 
Ballenstadt on the N., past Mansfeld on the E., to beyond Ihle- 
feld.on the S. The only interruption to this continuity is for a 
short space in the south-western quarter, near (Questenberg, 
G2 
