Iviii PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



gressively on the Devonian rocks, they are probably of the Lower 

 Carboniferous age. 



The author then proceeded to give an account of the Permian 

 rock round the Hartz and the Thiiringer Wald, specially pointing 

 out the enormous thickness of their base or bottom rock, the rothe 

 todte Liegende or Lower red sandstone of England. No coal of any 

 consequence is found in this deposit, although thin seams have been 

 found in Saxony, which have afforded the remarkable Permian flora 

 described as such by Gutbier and Geinitz. On the other hand, these 

 rocks have been pierced at Rotheburg, near Eisleben, to a depth of 

 1200 feet, and at Eisenach to a still greater depth, without reaching 

 the carboniferous rocks or finding any trace of coal. The uppermost 

 beds of this rothe todte Liegende are well exposed in natural sections 

 on the N.E. flank of the Thiiringer Wald, where they are overlaid by 

 bituminous schists, and by the Kupfer Schiefer with its fossil fishes. 



Alluding then to the Zechstein or Magnesian Limestone, the author 

 explained why, in proposing the word Permian, from the spread of 

 these rocks over the Russian province of Perm, he had also included 

 in this group a certain portion of schistose and partly calcareous red 

 rocks which everywhere overlie the Zechstein, and often constitute 

 ridges separated from the Bunter Sandstein, properly so called, or the 

 base of the Trias. Thus he considered the Permian (which in Russia 

 has copper-bearing sandstones, with plants and conglomerates far 

 above the Zechstein) to be an under-Trias, having the Zechstein lime- 

 stone intercalated in a great red formation. 



After commenting on the spread of the Triassic formation through 

 Europe, the author specially called attention to the recent discovery, 

 by M. de Verneuil, of true Muschelkalk in several parts of Spain, 

 containing numerous fossils. 



This communication concluded with a general resume, in which the 

 author directed attention to a map showing, that, whilst the rocks 

 of the Silurian basin of Bohemia, the Silurian and Devonian troughs 

 of Saxony, and the great Palaeozoic region of the Rhenish provinces 

 (composed of Devonian and Lower Carboniferous rocks) have a main 

 strike from N.E. to S.W., coincident with the major axes of their 

 geograp})ical range, the sedimentary deposits of the same age in the 

 Hartz, the North Thiiringer Wald, and the Riesen Gebirge have 

 been thrown by great subterranean forces into transverse geographi- 

 cal chains, accompanied by the eruption of granites, porphyries, green- 

 stones, &c., which have not only wrenched the original strata into 

 abnormal directions, but have also metamorphosed them in a remark- 

 able manner. 



Nor can I omit, whilst alluding to these remarks by our own 

 countryman on the structure of the palaeozoic rocks of Northern 

 Germany, to notice an interesting memoir on the geology of the 

 Thiiringer Wald by Prof. Credner of Gotha, whose geological map 

 of the Thiiringer Wald was so highly spoken of by Sir R. Murchison 

 at the meeting at Liverpool. The memoir to which I allude will be 

 found in the Transactions of the Royal Academy of Sciences of Erfurt, 

 published on the centenary anniversary of its foundation, 1 9 th July, 



