228 M. DE BoxNARD on the 



on the banks of the Lauter, near Olsbriicken, and In many 

 other localities, the coal measures and coal resting on amyg- 

 daloid. Be that as it may, the preceding facts appear suffi- 

 cient to prove that at least a part of the trap rocks of the 

 Nahe should be considered as contemporaneous with the 

 coal measures of the Palatinate ; but it must also be recol- 

 lected that M. Omalius d'Halloy, and M. Calme, have 

 thought that they observed these rocks in some points, be- 

 neath the ancient schists of the Hunsdriick,* on the left 

 bank of the Nahe. 



The trap formation contains large veins of sulphate of 

 barytes ; one of this kind is seen near and to the N. of 

 Baumholder, on the road to Oberstein. It is stated that 

 near Seelen (to the E. of Wolfstein), a considerable vein of 

 reddish spathose limestone is worked in this formation. It 

 also contains such a great quantity of small veins or bundles 

 of copper ore, that it is known in the country by the name 

 of Kupfergebiirge (copper formation). The copper mines 

 of Fischbach, Norfeld, Baumholder, Oberstein, Niederhau- 

 sen, &c. were worked in it ; all are now abandoned. Traces 

 of mercury have been observed in this formation at Baum- 

 holder, St. Julian, and elsewhere ; the manganese vein of 

 Crettnich near Wadern, is worked in it, as also many iron 

 veins at the foot of Mont Tonnerre ; lastly must be cited 

 the great masses of iron ore which are in many places 

 worked in open day, on the limits of the trap of the Nahe, 

 and the schists of Hunsdruck. 



But independantly of the trap formations, well character- 



■ * See Journal des Mines, No. 144, and No. 146, p. 144. 



In a work entitled Geognostische Studien am Mitttel-Rhein, printed 

 at Mayence in 1819, M. Steinlieimer cites, page 112, &c. numerous lo- 

 calities in the Palatinate, where basalt, wacke, and amydaloid, appa- 

 rently form beds in the coal measures. In other places, on the contrary, 

 as at Braunhasen, on the slope of the Hunsdriick, he considers the basalt 

 as belonging to the transition rocks of the schistose mountains (p. 200). 

 From the whole of his observations he concludes, that all this trap for- 

 mation is probably the product of submarine volcanoes, which acted on 

 the pre-existing rocks of Hunsdriick, at the same time that the sea de- 

 posited the secondary formations of the Palatinate. 



