316 M. VON Humboldt 



France, in the platform of Burgundy, near Viteaux and 

 Coussy-les-Forges, near Dax, in the commune of St. Pan de 

 Lon, &c. I have not observed this formation in the equi- 

 noxial part of America. 



Quadersandstein (Sandstone of Konigstein). 



A very distinct formation (Banks of the Elbe, above 

 Dresden, between Pima, Schandau, and Konigstein ; be- 

 tween Nuremberg and Weissenburg ; Staffelstein in Fran- 

 conia ; Heuscheune, Adersbach ; Teufelsmauer at the foot 

 of the Hartz ; valley of the Moselle and near Luxembourg ; 

 Vic in Lorraine ; Nalzen in the Pays de Foy, and Navar- 

 reins, at the foot of the Pyrenees) characterized by M. 

 Hausmann, and for a long time confounded either with the 

 quartzose varieties of the new red sandstone, the sandstone 

 of the plastic clay, or with the sandstone of Fontainebleau, 

 above the calcaire grossier of Paris : it is the white sandstone 

 of M. de Bonnard, and the third formation sandstone of 

 M. d'Aubuisson. Preferring geographical names, I often 

 call this formation the Konigstein sandstone, the new red 

 sandstone the Nebra sandstone, and the rauschelkalk the 

 Gottingen limestone. 



The quadersandstein has a white, 5 ellowish, or grey colour, 

 with very fine grains, which are agglutinated together by a 

 nearly invisible argillaceous or quartzose cement. Mica is 

 not abundant in it, and is always silvery and disseminated 

 in isolated plates. It neither contains the included oolite 

 beds, nor the flattened lenticular masses of clay (thongallen) 

 which characterise the new red sandstone. It is never 

 schistose ; but is divided into very thick beds, which are cut 

 at a right angle by fissures, and of which some easily decom- 

 pose into a very fine sand. It contains hydrate of iron (Metz) 

 disposed in nodules. The organic remains disseminated in 

 this formation present, according to Messrs. von Schlotheim, 

 Haussmann, and Raumer, an extraordinary mixture of sea 

 shells (very analogous to those of the rauschelkalk) and 



