﻿110 Dr. Feist mantel — Bohemian Coal Fauna and Passage-Beds. 



c. The Lower Coal-seam. 



From this district I determined about 96 species of plants, and 

 also a Crustacean referred to the Eurypterida was described as 

 Lepidoderma Jmlwfi, Eeuss.' A full account of these relations I 

 have given lately in two larger papers.^ 



It is very interesting to note the occurrence of numerous Ironstone 

 nodules in some localities in the district of this lower seam, which 

 are in the shales above it, and contain, like the shales themselves, 

 many well-preserved fossil plants. 



The fossil plants of these sjoherosiderites and of other places in 

 the Bohemian Coal-fields 1 have especially described.^ 



The Lower Coal-seam is generally thicker, and where it is in 

 connexion with the upper seam, much deeper below the surface ; in 

 other localities it is reached at once when sinking a shaft, without 

 traversing the upper seam. 



d. Animal Fossils from above the Upper Coal-seam. 



It remains to mention another occurrence of animal-remains above 

 the Upper Coal-seam. More in the northern part of it, about six 

 English miles N.N.W. of the city of Pilsen, between the villages 

 Zilow and Ledec, a Coal-seam was reached at a depth of six metres, 

 which was only 63 cm. thick, and contained in the lower part only 

 some thin streaks of a variety of Coal which resembled mostly the 

 Niirschan Gas-coal, so that I had no doubt this seam is the most 

 northern representative of the Niirschan Upper Seam. 



A little to the south of the village Zilow, I succeeded in finding 

 (already 1871) some spherosiderites, which evidently came from 

 above the Upper Coal-seam ; they were more oblong and flat, 

 and reminded me of similar forms in the Leebach strata of the 

 Saarbriick Coal-field, which was still more probable judging by 

 their contents ; they contained spines of Xenacanthiis (apparently 

 Declieni), Ichthyocopros (as they are found in the Permian strata of 

 Northern Bohemia), ribbed fish-scales, and other bones, which most 

 probably belong to the Permian Arcliegosaurus. 



In 1875, Dr. A. Fritsch again visited this region, and procured 

 also from the spherosiderites,'' several fishes of the genus Palceo- 

 niscus, amongst which was an Amhlypterus (according to the last 

 report) of 115 cm. in length. This all speaks certainly for Permian 

 affinities. 



e. Eed Sandstone Formation in the Pilsen Basin. 



Above all the seams we find Eed Sandstones, especially in the 

 northern and southern portion of the Upper Coal-seam district. 



In the northern portion we find near the village Kottiken sand- 



1 Eeuss, Denkschriften der k. Academie der Wissensch. Wien, 1856, p. 83. — 

 Fritsch, Fauna der Steinkohlenformation in Bolimen, Archiv fur Naturh. Durch- 

 forsch. etc.,ii. vol. 1873. 



2 Studien ira Gebiete des Kohlengebirges in Bohmen, Abh. der k. bobm. Gesellscb. 

 d. Wissenscb. 1874. — Versteinerungen der bohm. Kohlenformation, Cassel, 1874-76. 



3 Sit/Aingsb. d. k. bohm. Gesellscb. d. "Wissenscb. 1873. 



* I think it is the same locality, or very near, of which I just spoke. 



