412 Mr. Weaver on Floetz Formations. [Dec. 



this description, the uppermost of which is found at the depth of 

 18 fathoms from the surface, being only five inches thick ; the 

 middle one at the depth of 28 fathoms, being 18 inches thick, 

 and containing some useful coal ; but the lowest bed contains 

 the best coal, which is a kind of pitch coal approaching to moor 

 coal. 



Organic Remains. — Numerous remains of bivalve and univalve 

 shells, partly well preserved, partly broken, are found in the 

 quadersandstone of the Blatenberg and Heidelberg, near Blan- 

 kenburg. Their substance consists not unfrequently of calce- 

 dony, connected with a calcedonic mass.* Petrified remains of 

 plants are also numerous, appearing near Blankenburg, in the 

 form of large leaves, .which have some resemblance to those of 

 oak, lime, and fig trees, but are much larger, and also to those 

 of the palm tribe, according to B. von Schlotheim; and near 

 Lauchst'adt whole strata are composed of petrified leaves, with 

 stems and branches of wood, in such quantity as to resemble the 

 remains of a fallen forest.f Fragments of vegetables, composed 

 of brown coal, occur near Goslar and Gbttingen. Petrified 

 fragments of bones are also found in the quadersandstone. 

 M. von Schlotheim observes, that, upon the whole, the same 

 petrifactions occur in the newer floetz fine-grained sandstone or 

 quadersandstone, that are met with in the shell limestone, although 

 much more sparingly; the sandstone being sometimes wholly free 

 from them. Pinnites, turbinites, pholadites, pectinites, buccar- 

 dites, ostracites, tellinites, mytilites, and myacites, seem of most 

 common occurrence ; but there are also noticed, pectunculites, 

 chamites, venulites, trigonellites, donacites, terebratulites, ser- 

 pulites, dentalites, muricites, buccinites, bullacites, strombites, 

 ▼olutites, conilites, nautilites, asteriacites, corallites, more rarely 

 echinites, and, scarcest of all, encrinites. 



2. In the tracts considered by M. von Raumer, in his work 

 referred to above, this formation occupies two principal districts ; 

 one being situated on the south-west of the Eulengebirge, and 

 the other on the north of the Riesengebirge. These deposits 

 belong to those widely extended masses, which are unequally 

 spread over the northern parts of Germany, occupying portions 

 of Moravia, Bohemia, Silesia, Lusatia, the Ertzgebirge, Lower 

 Saxony, and Westphalia, and which in the course of their 

 extent come in contact with, and cover rocks of very different 

 eras; being generally disposed in an horizontal position, or 

 slightly inclined. 



The southern deposit reposes partly on primary rocks, partly 

 on the old red sandstone tract, described in a former part of this 

 paper. The beds of the formation consist of: 



* The silicified state of many of the organic remains found in the green sand in 

 England is a well-known fact, calcedonic masses also appearing. 



■f* In the quaderstandstone near Gotha, M. von Schlotheim observed palmacitea 

 eanaliculatus, p. obsoletus. (See Petrefactenkunde.) 



