1848.] NAUMANN ON THE PERMIAN SYSTEM IN SAXONY. 3 



of most of the species of plants from those of the coa\(te?'rain houiller), 

 particularly induce me to make this assertion. Further, many of the 

 ichthyohtes are similar to the Palseoniscus or Amblypteris and to the 

 Xenacanthus of Beyrich. The tract of country which furnishes the 

 data I now communicate is almost entirely covered by drift (diluvium), 

 and it is through trials for coal that my knowledge has been obtained. 

 In addition to the sandstones and argillaceous schists, there occurs a 

 very bituminous combustible schist which is charged with Cypris, and 

 forms beds from 2 to 1 6 feet thick, wherein the fossil fishes are con- 

 tained. After having in vain examined by means of a draining adit 

 (a a) the upper stage of the sandstone and schistose clay, which is 500 



6 Red sandstone*. 4 Zechstein. 3 Red sandstone. 



2 Porphyry. 1 Sandstone and schistose clay. 



feet thick, a shaft was sunk {b h) in order to explore the lower stage 

 by a gallery {be). A number of fossil plants were found in this shaft, 

 viz. Calamites 3 species, Sphenopteris 4 or 5 sp., Odontopteris 2 sp., 

 Pecopteris 1 sp., Neuropteris 1 sp., Lycopodites or Walchia 1 sp. 

 The bituminous schist, it may be observed, was passed through be- 

 tween b and c. 



" Now all these strata so resemble those of the coal-fields that they 

 might well indeed be mistaken for them. But such an interpretation 

 would, I am convinced, be erroneous ; and I conceive that all the 

 lower strata, which consist of white sandstone and greyish schists, and 

 which attain a thickness of more than 800 feet, cannot be anything 

 else than the lower stage of the Roth-liegende (lower new red of 

 England). From that stage, or No. 1, the following then is the 

 ascending order : 2. Quartziferous porphyry. 3. Red sandstones. 

 4. Zechstein (magnesian limestone of England). 5. Red and mot- 

 tled sandstones and clays. 



" The last-mentioned band does not belong to the Trias, but to the 

 same formation as the Roth-liegende. That name is, however, no 

 longer applicable to a formation, the greatest part of which is of white 

 and grey colours ; and as to the Zechstein, it is here reduced to a band 

 which varies from 30 to 60 feet in thickness only. Hence it is that 

 I prefer the denomination of Permian as proposed by you. Sir ; and 

 this term is the more applicable to the strata of Oschatz, inasmuch as 

 by all their relations they approach much more to the Russian than 

 to the Thuringian formation of the same age. 



" Generally speaking, the lower member of our Roth-liegende is 

 represented by white or grey sandstones and grits, as at Rohrlitz for 

 example, where they attain a thickness of 200 feet ; and again, the 



* The upper red sandstone (5) does not occur in Professor Naumann's diagram, 

 probably because it is not seen at Oschatz ; but I have added it in order that the 

 figure may agree with his table of superposition. This upper sandstone is indeed 

 seen in that relation in many other places in Saxony, Thuringia, &c., and has been 

 so classified by rae. (See Russia and Ural Mountains, vol. i. p. 199-203.) 



B 2 



