224 M. » E Bo N N A ii D o« the .. \ \ 



it also contains large grained quartzose conglomerates, the- 

 cement of which, of a reddish-brown colour, often appears 

 derived from the destruction of trappean rocks. Lastly, the 

 beds of compact limestone, of a dark colour, resembling 

 those met with in the western part of the basin of the Sarre, 

 between the upper strata of the coal measures, occur here 

 in very frequent beds in the midst of the schists and conglo- 

 merates, and even in many places appear (near Wolfstein^ 

 Rothseelberg, &c.) beneath the whole coal formation. 



No general direction can be observed in the stratification 

 of the Glane coal basin. The most southern coal beds, whicb 

 are the best of the whole basin (those of Altenkirchen and 

 Dorrenbach) incline to the N. and thus appear to rest on the 

 band of red sandstone separating them from the Sarre coal 

 basin ; but more on the N. the beds of coal worked often in-, 

 cline nearly parallel to the slope of the mountains that con- 

 tain them, and the general disposition of the rocks appears to 

 be determined by the inequalities in the surface of an infe- 

 rior rock, situated at a slight depth. 



It is in the coal formation of the Glane that a great part of 

 the mercurial mines of the Palatinate is worked ; the ore 

 either forms veins, as at Maersfield, Potzberg, near Cousel, 

 &c. or more or less irregular masses, as at Stahlberg, and 

 Landsberg, near Obersmoschel. Traces of lead ore have 

 been noticed in the same formation, but which have not 

 given rise to any works. Many slightly salt springs are 

 known in it near Grumbach, at Diedelkopf, near Cousel,' 

 and elsewhere ; it is said that the spring of Diedelkopf had 

 formerly been worked. 



On its N. E. limit, the coal formation is covered, in the 

 environs of Alvey, by horizontal limestone, which extends 

 on the N. and E. to the banks of the Rhine. 



that the coal formation of the Glane was but the equivalent or repi-esenta* 

 tive, on the left bank of the Rhine, of the marno-bituminous schist forma- 

 tion, spread over the centre of Germany, and which sometimes also con-* 

 tains coal ; but on the other hand wide difFerences seem to oppose them- 

 selves to the adoption of this idea, which I was unable to submit to a seJ 

 vere examination, as I did not return into the Palatinate after I had ob- 

 served the rocks in the Mansfield county. 



