1855.] murchison and morris thuringerwald. 409 



April 4, 1855. 



E. L. J. Ridsdale, Esq., J. E. Saunders, Junr. Esq., G. H. Wa- 

 then, Esq., and E. W. Jackson, Esq., were elected Fellows. 



The following Communication was read : — 



On the Paleozoic and their Associated Rocks of the Thurin- 

 GERWALD and the Harz. By Sir Roderick Impey Murchi- 

 soN, D.C.L., F.R.S., V.P.G.S., and Professor J. Morris, F.G.S. 



Contents. 

 Part I. 



lutroduction. 



The Thukingerwald. 



Lowest Grauwacke and Lower Silurian. 

 Upper Devonian. 

 Coal Deposits. 

 Permian Deposits : 



Rothe-todte-liegende, 

 Weiss-liegende, 

 Kupfer-schiefer, 

 Zechstein, and 

 Sandschiefer. 

 Triassic rocks. (Base of the Mesozoic or Secondary rocks.) 



Part II. 

 The Ha-rz. 



General view of the succession of the Palaeozoic rocks of the Harz. 



Upper Silurian rocks. 



Devonian rocks. 



Transition from Devonian to Carboniferous. 



Lower Carboniferous rocks. 



Upper Palaeozoic rocks surrounding the Harz. 

 Upper Coal, and Permian Deposits. 



Secondary or Mesozoic rocks, N. of the Harz. 

 Recapitulation. 



PART I. 



Introduction. — The advice given by a distinguished French savant 

 many years ago to one of us, then full of zeal to discover geological 

 phsenomena unknown to his contemporaries, was, — " Examine the 

 travelling map of the region in which you may happen to be, and 

 wherever you see a tract void of all post roads, go thither, and you 

 will infallibly meet with something new to science." 



This suggestion has since been our guiding rule in many ex- 

 cursions, including several visits to the insulated mountain-tracts of 

 the Thiiringerwald and the Harz, which in bygone years were 

 traversed by no post roads, and which in these days of rapid loco- 

 motion are avoided by all railroads. 



When Sedgwick and Murchison first looked at the Thiiringerwald 

 frontier in 1839, that chain had little attracted the attention of 

 geologists, with the exception of Von HoiF of Gotha, who had then 

 described the physical features of its northern half, determining 

 several altitudes, and giving a general aperpi of its crystalline and 



