M4 Analyses of Booh. [Aug. 



chiefly in the Erzgebiirge, or metalliferous mountains, a chain of 

 mountains which separates Saxony from Bohemia. ]t extends in 

 length about 120 miles, terminating in one extremity in Franconia, 

 and in the other in the great and deep valley occupied by the Elbe. 

 Its height is about 32S0 feet above the plains of Saxony, or 3609 

 above the level of the sea. The declivity towards Bohemia is very 

 rapid, but towards Saxony it is quite gradual. The fundamental 

 rock of this chain is granite; which is covered, or, as it were, 

 wrapped round, by beds of gneiss, mica slate, and clay slate, lying 

 above each other in the order in which thev have been named. In 

 many places the granite seems to pierce the covering, and appear 

 visibly. Among these beds there are some which contain metallic 

 minerals. These, as well as the numerous and rich veins which 

 traverse them, are the objects of the great mining operations in 

 Saxony. There occur likewise, in the chain rocks of serpentine 

 and of quartz, beds of limestone, of coal, of clay, and others. The 

 whole of the eastern part of the chain is covered on the north side 

 with a huge bed of porphyry, and on the south side by a bed of 

 sandstone of equal magnitude. 



It is upon these mountains that the Saxon basalt treated of by 

 Daubuisson rests. It forms the summit of about twenty mountains, 

 under various forms, as tables, cones, and domes. Some of these 

 mountains are isolated; but they are more generally connected by 

 their sides to the neighbouring mountains, the basaltic top alone 

 remaining separate. The chief basaltic mountains which he de- 

 scribes are the following : — Scheibenberg, Bierenstein, Pajhlberg, 

 Heidelberg, Ascher-hubel, Landberg, Steinkopf, Lichtewalde, 

 Geissengenberg, Luchaucrberg, Cottanerspitze, YVinterberg, Heu- 

 lenberg, and Stolpen. 



Scheibenberg ^s a conical mountain composed of gneiss, which is 

 covered by beds of mica slate and clay slate. Situated in a kind of 

 plain formed by the highest part of the body of the mountain, we 

 find a lied of gravel, over which there is one of fine sand, and then 

 one of clay. On these horizontal beds of gravel, san r ', and clay, lies 

 the mass of basalt which crowns the mountain, it is about 7^0 

 feet in length, 400 in breadth, and between 200 and 2G0 in thick- 

 ness. Its upper surface is nearly horizontal. On the west side 

 many subterraneous galleries have been opened, which have been 

 pushed under the basaltic platform. These operations have dis- 

 closed in part the beds on which the basalt rests. In l/« s 7 M. 

 Werner observed in this place a bed of wacke on which the basalt 

 was deposited in immediate contact ; and he remarked that these 

 two substances passed into each other by gradual shades of differ- 

 ence. 



The basalt which constitutes the summit of Pcehlberg likewise 

 lies over beds of gravel, sand, and clay, deposited in the same 

 order as in Scheibenberg. In the mountain called Bierenstein the ba- 

 saltic platform likewise lies immediately over a thin bed of sand. In 

 the mountains of Landberg. Ascher-hubel, Cottanerspitze, and Heu- 



