Western part of the Palatinate. 2g3' 



matloD rests upon the red sandstone that surrounds it, and 

 whose beds appear in some places, on the banks of the Blies, 

 near Neunkirchen, to the S. E. of Ottweiler, to dip beneath 

 the coal measures. On the S. and W., on the contrary, the 

 coal measures dip beneath the red sandstone, and are found 

 by traversing the sandstone.* 



The northern part of our coal zone, which sheds its wa- 

 ters into Nahe, and which principally comprises the banks 

 of the Glane and its confluents, is of a different nature. The 

 argillaceous schists, with little or no impressions, often form 

 the principal mass of this formation and sometimes entirely 

 constitute it : they commonly alternate with schistose sand- 

 stone ; but the variety of sandstone especially known by the 

 name of the coal measure sandstone, is rather rare. A coal 

 almost always dry and of bad quality often occurs in these 

 rocks, forming in each mountain one or at most two small 

 beds of a few inches thick, in general situated near the sur- 

 face. The coal is nearly always immediately covered, and 

 also sometimes divided into two beds, by a limestone of a 

 dull yellow or blackish brown, or presenting different mix- 

 tures of these two colours, and sometimes containing patches 

 (mouches) of sulphuret of zinc. 



The coal and limestone are worked together in numerous 

 small mines, and the principal use of the coal is to burn the 

 lime,. which has been generally employed as manure for forty 

 years, and has singularly improved this barren country. 



Marno-bituminous schists have been observed in the same 

 formation, which sometimes present (at Munster Appel) the 

 impressions of fish penetrated with sulphuret of mercury f ; 



* It would appear that part of the red sandstone of the Palatinate, 

 that which supports the coal measures, might be referred to the old red 

 sandstone, the carboniferous limestone being wanting, and that the part 

 resting on the coal measures was the new red or saliferous sandstone. 

 Some of the lower beds of the coal measures, or the mill-stone grit, (if 

 present) may however be red. (Trans.) 



+ This very remarkable circumstance, which reminds us of the marno- 

 bituminous schists of Hesse and the Mansfield country, the bad quality 

 and slight thickness of the coal, the uniformity with which it is covered 

 by a limestone very much resembling zechatein, &c. led me to consider 



