14 Mr. Weaver on the [July, 



tinate join on the E those which constitute the mountains of the 

 whole northern part of the Vosges, the eastern slope of which is 

 rapid, but which gradually declines to the W toward the coun- 

 try which especially forms the subject of this notice. In this 

 chain, the granite, long hid beneath the secondary rocks, ap- 

 pears for the last time between Landau and Annweiler; it there 

 forms near Albers.chweiler an isolated mountain, in which the 

 granite rock is seen to pass into porphyry. This mountain rises 

 in the midst of the red sandstone that surrounds it, and which 

 immediately rests upon it. Proceeding from this place toward 

 the N to the foot of Mont Tonnerre, or toward the W to Sarre- 

 bruck, red sandstones and quartzose conglomerates are only 

 found, the whole of which is commonly known by the name of 

 the red sandstone formation. They are covered, but only in a 

 few points, in this direction, by horizontal shelly limestone 

 (muschel-kalk), as at Bischmissheim, near Sarrebruck, or by 

 limestone and marly clay, as in the environs of Deux Ponts, or 

 by gypsum placed between the red sandstone and limestone, as 

 at Omersheim, between Sarrebruck and Bliescastel. Not far 

 from Sarguemine, on the right bank of the Sarre, is situated the 

 small saline of Relchingen, near the limit common to the red 

 sandstone of the Palatinate, and the horizontal limestone of 

 Lorraine. Still more west, the red sandstones envelope the 

 southern part of the coal measures, are prolonged on the left 

 bank of the Sarre, to and beyond the environs of Treves, and 

 even penetrate on the right bank of this river, into the basin of 

 the Brems and its confluents. They are also, in some points, 

 covered with horizontal limestone, as at Nalbach (two leagues to 

 the north of Sarre Louis), at Wahlen (between Mergiz and 

 Wadern), &c. It is probable that this great mass of arenaceous 

 rocks comprises the two formations of red sandstone, known in 

 Germany by the. names of rothe liegende and bunter-sandstein ;" 

 meaning by the former, the ancient red sandstone, and by the 

 latter, the new red, or variegated, or saliferous sandstone. That 

 such is the interpretation to be given, the preceding description 

 has partly tended to show, the old red and new red sandstones 

 appearing in some places in direct contact with each other, and 

 the new red sandstone partly overlying also the coal measures. 

 But the relative position of the old red sandstone itself is com- 

 pletely established by what follows. 



" The coal measures form a zone which extends from SW to 

 NE, 25 leagues in length, from the southern bank of the Sarre, 

 a little below Sarrebruck, to beyond the Nahe in the environs of 

 Sobernheim. The breadth of this zone of coal varies from four 

 to seven leagues, according as it is more orles'S confined by the 

 two chains between which it occurs. At about a third of its 

 width, it is traversed by a band of the red sandstone formation, 

 which constitutes some elevated summits, among others that of 



