Mountains of Hesse, Sfc. JOS 



the same. M. de Hoff conceives that the two latter sub- 

 stances' cannot be confounded with any of those named va- 

 riolites or amygdaloids, and that they are very evidently 

 lavas. 



Basalt, properly so called, constitutes especially the por- 

 tion of the mass comprised between the middle cleft and 

 the eastern part (also separated from the sandstone by a 

 cleft) ; the variolites and the blistered lavas form on the 

 contrary the western portion, and especially the hook that 

 descends into the sandstone. 



The nature of the sandstone and its change in the neigh- 

 bourhood of the basalt, the fragments of sandstone beds that 

 the latter contains in its upper part, the form of the basaltic 

 mass, the hooked form it presents on the west, and by which 

 it appears to ha.ve sought to escape, before it was able to 

 raise the upper crust of the mountain ; lastly, the true lavas 

 with which the basalt is associated, appear to M. de HoiF 

 sufficient reason for believing that the wide cleft filled by 

 basaltic rocks has not been filled by precipitation, and from 

 above, but from beneath, and by the raising of a mass in a 

 liquid state. He considers therefore that this situation speaks 

 in favour of the volcanic origin of basalt. 



To the S. E. of the Blauekuppe, Isl, between Stedtfeld 

 and Horsel, in the country of Eisenach ; 2dly, near Hiit- 

 schof, on the road from Eisenach to Berka; Sdly, at the 

 Kupfergrube, between Weinschensuhl and Horschlitt, three 

 facts are observable analogous to those seen at the Blaue- 

 kuppe, that is to say, the basalt traverses beds of variegated 

 sandstone.* The same fact is also remarked at the StofFels- 

 kuppe, situated at a greater distance in the same direction ; 

 it has been described by M. Danz, counsellor of mines, in 

 the second volume of Observations of the Society of Berlin. 

 Fragments of sandstone are also seen in the basalt of this 

 place. 



The quarry of Pflasterkaute, near Marksuhl, is but half a 

 league from the StofFelskuppe, and the basalt of the one is 

 probably the continuation of the other. The basaltic mass 



* New red sandstone. (Trans.) 



