1823.] Mr. Weaver on Fossil Human Bones. 21 



ble that the remains of the land animals thus found commingled 

 in the fissures of the limestone, compacted in the same alluvial 

 soil that covers its surface, may be derived from different periods.* 

 But as, on the one hand, the remains of several of the animals 

 mentioned above have been found accompanying each other in 

 tufaceous and loamy beds, e. g. nearKannstadt, Osterode, Thiede 

 and other places, it is also possible that they may be of a con- 

 temporaneous origin.-f- 



Turning now our attention to the NW side of the Elster to 

 the heights above Kaschwitz, we find the gypsum there imbed- 

 ded in the limestone, and appearing in the declivities. The 

 former seems to have been laid bare by the destruction of the 

 superincumbent limestone; but the latter becomes again visible 

 in the slopes and eminences, proceeding toward Rubitz and 

 Gera, occurring there in the form of zechstein and gryphite 

 limestone. 



The gypsum seems to constitute in this quarter a large iso- 

 lated mass, included in the limestone. As far as exposed in 

 the quarries, which have no where penetrated deeper than 30 or 

 40 feet from the surface, it is compact, and of so firm a consist- 

 ency as to require to be blasted with gunpowder. Colour, grey- 

 ish-white, rarely inclining to yellowish and flesh-red. It is 

 sometimes striped in the ribbon and undulated manner, and 

 alternates with slight layers of clay, in the vicinity of which it 

 passes into the foliated variety, and acquires partially a greyish- 

 black colour. Farinaceous gypsum occurs adjacent to the 

 fissures, and also in their interior, in the form of nests. Specular 

 gypsum has been met with only in crystals in the smaller cre- 

 vices. Other varieties would probably be found, in the same 

 manner as in Mansfeld, were the quarries conducted to a greater 

 depth. No traces of salt springs have been discovered in the 

 vicinity of the gypsum, though from the geological position of 

 the latter such might have been expected. 



The entire gypseous mass is intersected and perforated by 

 fissures and cavities, which follow every direction, and are con- 

 nected with each other by serpentine channels, of larger or 

 smaller dimensions. But these fissures no where attain so great 

 a breadth as those of the superincumbent limestone near Politz. 

 They are, however, filled throughout in a similar manner with the 

 same alluvial loamy deposit, even to the greatest depth ; and this 

 loamy sediment appears horizontally disposed for short dist- 



" This argument seems to be invalidated by the consideration, that such remains 

 have occurred together in other caverns, e. g. in England. (See I'rof. Buckland's excel- 

 lent paper referred to above, and also the Quarterly Review, Oct. 1822.) — T. W. 



+ According to the view of several naturalists, the bones of the animals met with in 

 the caverns of Gaylenreuth, Liebenstein, Scharzfeld, &c. and the remains of bones 

 found in the alluvial formations, belong to very different periods of the ancient world. 

 This opinion, however, requires the stricter examination, since it is stated that the bones 

 of elephants have occurred in some of those caverns ; and in particular a large part of 

 the skull of an elephant was thus met with in one of the caverns of th&Hartr, which is 

 now preserved in the collection of Blumenbach. 



