334 Mr. Weaver on the [May, 



the necessity of further comment. Nor should I have been 

 drawn thus far into controversy, had I not considered the exact 

 determination of the question to be of primary importance, in 

 ascertaining the true relations of a portion of the structure of 

 the earth. 



Since, however, the term rothetodtliegende formation has 

 been productive of so much misapprehension in the minds of 

 foreigners,* I venture to suggest to German geologists the expe- 

 diency of abstaining from the use of it altogether. By whatever 

 means a more perfect harmony might be established between 

 the British and German descriptions, it could not fail to redound 

 to the advantage of science. This object might be readily 

 attained if German writers, adopting in part the language of 

 English geologists, would for the future express the group by 

 the term " first floetz, or carboniferous series," instead of 

 " rothetodtliegende formation," and the individual members 

 (whenever circumstances will admit of the distinct division) by 

 those of " old red sandstone, carboniferous limestone, and coal 

 formation."t And, in like manner, both countries might speak 

 the same language if the succeeding group were designated by 

 the expression " second floetz, or gypseous and saliferous 

 series," and its individual members by those of " calcareous 

 conglomerate, lower alpine or gypseous limestone, and new red 

 sandstone, formations." 



I shall close this paper by adverting to a few remarks con- 

 tained in the memoir of Mr. Conybeare, referred to above, 

 which require notice, being connected with the present 

 question. 



1. My information respecting the Portishead case was derived 

 from the " order of superposition of strata " of Prof. Buckland, 

 appended to Phillips's Outlines of the Geology of England and 

 Wales, 1818. I find that Mr. Greenough also rested on the 

 same authority, when stating that imperfect coal in thin beds 

 occurred in the lower part of the old red sandstone (See group, 

 No. 22, of the Geological Map of England and Wales). But the 

 position being now retracted, the quotation becomes of course 

 invalid. 



2. It is stated by Mr. Conybeare, that " the coal seams 

 which occur in the tract of the carboniferous limestone are 

 reduced to slight traces, which have never yet been worked." 



This statement does not correspond with the representation 



* E. g. Omalius d'Halloy, who has erroneously applied the term rothetodtliegende 

 to conglomerates belonging to the gypseous and saliferous series. — (See that author's 

 Geological View of the adjacent Parts of France and the Netherlands, in the 24th vol. 

 of the Journal des Mines.) 



•f Von Raumer, in his descriptioa of the carboniferous series of Lower Silesia, the 

 county of Glatz, and part of Bohemia and Upper Lusatia, avoids the expressions roth, 

 liegende, todtliegende, and rothetodtliegende altogether ; designating the general series 

 by the term " die red sandstone (rother sandstein) formation." — (See the Annalt of 

 Philo$ophy, Oct. 1821, and Aug. 1822.) 



