1821.] Mr. Weaver on Floetz Formations. 247 



examining the observations of M. Freiesleben and other writers 

 on the forest of Thuringia, on Mansfeld, Thuringia, and the 

 circle of the Saale ; * and of Baron von Buch,f and M. von 

 Raumer, on Lower Silesia, the county of Glatz, and part of 

 Bohemia and Upper Lusatia,;t in all of which it occurs of great 

 extent and thickness, we shall find that in these tracts the old 

 red saudstone, carboniferous limestone, and coal formation, dis- 

 play relations very analogous to those existing in Scotland. 



1. Forest of Thuringia. — The old red sandstone {rothe todthe- 

 gende) is here, also, in frequent association with porphyry and 

 trap, and contains, likewise, incidentally, thin interrupted beds 

 of limestone, carbonated shale, or coal shale (kohlenschiefer of 

 M. Freiesleben), and coal itself (pitch coal, anthracite, and slate 

 coal), with slate-clay, bearing the usual vegetable impressions ; 

 the subordinate beds being of uncertain extent, while the whole 

 series are found more or less in alternation. The coal shale is 

 remarkable for containing occasionally not only vegetable 

 impressions and petrified shells, but likewise impressions of 

 fishes, e. g. near Goldlauter, and in other places ; where it is 

 not unfrequently metalliferous, bearing grey copper ore, with 

 pyrites of copper, arsenic, and iron, more or less argentiferous, 

 and in sufficient quantity, to have become the object of mining 

 operations. The coal, also, in the Allthal, near Kleinschmalkal- 

 den, contains impressions of fishes, mytilites, and myacites, 

 and bears radiated iron pyrites, copper pyrites, and galena ; while 

 the coal, near Mannebach, passed, both on the line of range and 

 of dip, into firm shale, containing numerous vegetable impres- 

 sions, occasionally accompanied by pyrites, and massive galena, 

 yielding two ounces of silver in the quintal ; and the coal itself,, 

 it is said, was not wholly free from silver. 



2. Mansfeld, Thuringia, and the Circle of the Saale. — All the 

 details given by M. Freiesleben of these tracts, including the 

 districts of Sangerhausen, Stollberg, Ihlefeld, and Anhalt Bern- 

 burg, tend to prove : 



That the old red sandstone (rothe todtliegende) of those quar- 

 ters contains, incidentally, subordinate beds, or masses, of por- 

 phyry, trap, and amygdaloid, and beds of limestone, slate clay, 

 coal shale, and coal; 



That the old red sandstone, porphyritic and amygdaloidal trap, 

 and coal formation, are in direct and immediate association with 

 each other ; while the limestone occurs only in inconsiderable 



• See the elaborate work of M. Freiesleben, entitled, " Geognostischer Beytrag zur 

 kenntnis des Kupferschiefergcbirgs, 1807 — 1815, 4 vols. 8vo. ; the " Geologische 

 Beschreibung des Thiiringer Waldgebirges, by M. Heim; and the observations of 

 MM. Voigt, von Schlotheim, von II off*, &c. 



+ Von Buch. Geog. Beob. auf reisen durch Deutschland und Italien, 1802, vol. i. 

 f Von Kaunier. Das Gebirge Nieder-Schlesiens, du grafschaft Glate, und eines 

 AeiU von Bohmen, und der Ober-Lauwtz, geognoutijtch dargeetellt, 1819. 



