THE CARBONIFEROUS SVSTK.M .'U7 



sandstones and shales with some beds of coal (from 160 to 300 feet 

 thick) overlain by a mass of sandstones and conglomerates more 

 than 2000 feet llii.-k. 



Another small basin in the north, that of Coiuinentry (Allier), 

 is interesting in three respects. One is that it contains a very thick 

 bed of coal (40 to 60 feet thick) which in certain directions split,- 

 up into 5 or 6 beds, separated by shales and sandstones, just as in 

 the case of the " thick coal " of Staffordshire. Another point i- 

 that a shale 15 feet above this coal has yielded a large number of 

 insect remains. Thirdly, one of the beds of sandstone passes at 

 one place into a mass of breccia formed of angular blocks of gneiss 

 and gramilite which seem to represent a contemporaneous landslip 

 from neighbouring high ground. 



A few small tracts of Stephanian measures occur in Brittany 

 and Normandy, and are mainly of importance because they occur 

 within the region of Armorican flexures and show that deposition 

 had not completely ceased in that region. The most northern of 

 these is at Littry, south-west of Bayeux, the Coal-measures here 

 resting directly on Brioverian slates and being conformably over- 

 lain by Permian Beds, and they belong, therefore, to the latest 

 phase of the Stephanian. 



In Germany the most western tract of Stephanian Coal-measures 

 in the Germanic region is that of the Palatinate near Sarrebruck 

 (see Fig. 103), where they are known as the Ottweiler Beds. Here 

 they succeed the Westphalian Beds without any break, though 

 they overlap the latter on to the Devonian ; and they are also 

 conformably overlain by Permian Beds. The greater part of tin- 

 series consists of felspathic sandstone and conglomerate, testifying 

 to the upheaval and rapid detrition of the country to the north of 

 the basin ; but both at the base and again at the top are a few 

 hundred feet of finer sediments, chiefly grey shales with seams of 

 coal. The total thickness is from 2000 to 3000 feet. 



The small coalfields of Pilsen and Kradno in Bohemia are 

 specially interesting because they exhibit a still more complete 

 transition from Carboniferous to Permian and include a bed from 

 which remains of many insects, fish, and Amphibia have been 

 obtained by Dr. Fritsch. The plants in and above this bed aiv 

 Carboniferous, while the vertebrate animals are closely related 

 to forms which have been found in beds of Permian age : fish 

 of the genera Amblypterus, Acanthodes, Palceoniscus, and Xena- 

 canthus ; Amphibians of the genera Dendrerpedon, Sphenosaurus, 

 ChelidosauruK, Limnerpedon, Keraderpedon, Urocordylus, and 

 Hyalonomus, some of which are figured in the Geological Magazine 

 for 1885. 



