TRANSLATIONS AND NOTICES 



OF 



GEOLOGICAL MEMOIRS. 



On the Coal-formatiok between Prague and Pilseh - . 

 By Herr It. Ludwig. 



[Die Steinkohlenformation zwischen Prag und Pilsen : von Herrn E. Ludwig. 

 Notizblatt des Vereins fur Erdkunde, &c, zu Darmstadt. Folge iii. Heft 1. 

 Nos. 7, 9, 11, 12. 1862.] 



The productive Coal-formation of Bohemia is underlain either by 

 Silurian and metamorphosed slates or by granite and crystalline 

 quartzose rocks ; but other marine deposits are altogether wanting, 

 whether of Devonian, Carboniferous, Permian, Triassic, or Liassic 

 age. In fact, from the Silurian Period to the Cretaceous, the district 

 was a continent free from the presence of the sea. 



In consequence of the productive coal-beds between Prague and 

 Pilsen reposing neither upon Devonian rocks nor upon marine beds 

 of the Carboniferous formation, but upon much more ancient rocks, 

 and because they are not covered by well-marked Rothliegende, 

 neither by Zechstein, Trias, nor Jurassic rocks, it is impossible to 

 determine their age with the same certainty as that of other Coal- 

 formations, such as those of Zwickau and Westphalia. It only re- 

 mains, therefore, to endeavour to determine the age of the coal-beds 

 from a comparison of their fossils with those of other localities. 

 Fortunately the Bohemian beds are extremely rich in Plant-remains 

 in a good state of preservation. 



The Coal-formation occupies a broad band extending from Staab, 

 across Pilsen, to Kralup beyond Prague, 14 German miles in length, 

 from 1 to 2 in breadth, and which may be divided into three large 

 basins : namely, that extending from Staab to Plass, and which the 

 author terms the Basin of Pilsen ; that extending from Kralowiz to 

 Lana, or the Basin of Rakonitz ; and that commencing at Schlan and 

 extending beyond Kladno, to Kralup, which Herr Ludwig calls the 

 Basin of Buschtiehrad. 



Each of these basins is composed of a greater or smaller number 

 of unconnected troughs, and the whole band is bounded on the north 

 and south by several outlying basins. The author then gives a 

 general sketch of their physical features, and he afterwards remarks 

 that in some of the larger basins there is an upper or younger coal- 

 formation, separated from the lower one by very thick beds of con- 

 glomerate and sandstone, and which Reuss, in his Memoir on the 

 geological relations of the Basin of Rakonitz, referred to the Roth- 

 liegende. 



The individual troughs of one and the same basin possess, as Herr 



VOL. XIX. PART II. E 



