'Notice on the Geology of the Western part of 

 the Palatinate, by J\I.de Bonnard, Engineer 

 in Chief of the Royal Mining Corps. 



» ' (Annales des Mines 1821,) 



THE mountainous country on which I now propose to oflFer 

 some geological remarks, collected fifteen years since, ia 

 several professional tours, comprises a part of the ancient de- 

 partments of the Sarre and Mont Tonnerre : it is limited on 

 the W. and N. W. by the course of the Brems and that of 

 the Nahe ; on the S. by the present frontier of France ; on 

 the E. by the prolongation of the Vosges chain, to the fort of 

 jVIont Tonnere ; lastly on the N. E. by a curved line passing 

 ■within the limits of the small towns or bourgs of Gaelheim, 

 Alzey, Waellstein, and Creutznach. Beyond the latter li- 

 mit, and the red sandstones of the Vosges, are the rich plains 

 of the eastern part of the Palatinate, the soil of which is 

 formed of less ancient rocks than those of the western part. 



The river Nahe flows in a general direction from S. W. to 

 N. E. from its source, situated near Selhach at the foot of 

 the mountain of Schauniberg, to the small town of Kyrn, 

 where it turns towards the E. It follows this last direction 

 to the salines of Creutznach ; here it again turns, and flows 

 to the N. and even the N. N. W. to its junction with the 

 Rhine at Bingen, a point that occurs nearly in the prolonga- 

 tion of its original direction. 



On the left bank of the Nahe, and at a short distance from 

 its bed, the schistose and compact quartzite formations com- 

 mence, which form the mountains of the Hiinsdruck. On 

 the right bank, and also at a short distance from the river, 



