418 PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. [Apr. 4, 



In the meantime, attention is directed to section fig. 3, p. 417, 

 which explains how, in the adjacent kingdom of Saxony, the three 

 great inferior groups, viz. Silurian, Devonian, and Lower Carbo- 

 niferous, are unconformably surmounted by the upper coal, and how 

 the latter is followed by the Permian rocks. The clear physical 

 distinction between the Lower and Upper Carboniferous, which was 

 pointed out by Naumann, has since been confirmed by the palaeon- 

 tological labours of Prof. Geinitz. 



Coal deposits (Kohlen-Gebirge). — In the Thiiringerwald and the 

 adjacent parts of Saxony and Bavaria, as in Bohemia, the strata 

 from which coal is extracted overlie in transgressive positions all the 

 other ancient rocks. (See fig. 3). In the Thiiringerwald, and those 

 places where we are acquainted with them, such coal deposits consist 

 of lightish grey schists, or shale, and sandstones, in some of which 

 there are numerous impressions of fossil plants. In none of 

 these tracts has any indication yet been discovered of included animal 

 remains, to prove that these accumulations were formed under the 

 sea, or in marine estuaries like those of the antecedent Lower Car- 

 boniferous rocks, from which they are so sharply separated. The 

 remains of vegetables with which they are filled have, it is true, the 

 general fades of the rich carboniferous flora ; but under a critical 

 eye, the one set of plants is found to be distinct from the other in 

 some genera, and in nearly all the species. For this fact, particularly 

 as relates to Saxony, we are, as already mentioned, indebted to the 

 recent researches of Prof. Geinitz*. 



Whilst on this point, we can scarcely avoid reminding our country- 

 men, that as yet no geologist has endeavoured to ascertain whether 

 or not there be the same marked distinctions between the floras of 

 the Lower Carboniferous of Scotland and the overlying great coal- 

 fields of England, as that which has been worked out in Saxony. 



In the Thiiringerwald, as in most parts of Central Germany, some 

 geologists would indeed prefer to class these grey and dark coaly 

 deposits with the red conglomerates and sandstones (Rothe-todte- 

 liegende) which overhe them. But, guided by the analogies of Britain 

 and North America, where the coal deposits resting upon the Lower 

 Carboniferous rocks are symmetrically united over enormous areas, 

 and unquestionably belong, by their remains, to the same great epoch, 

 we adhere to the belief, that most of these small coal deposits, broken 

 off as they are from the superior red strata of Permian age, are still 

 to be classed with the carboniferous group. By this observation, 

 however, it is not to be inferred that we are not quite aware of the 

 existence of certain thin courses of coaly matter, associated with the 

 Rothe-todte-liegende itself in parts of Germany. 



Desirous of satisfying ourselves more perfectly on this point, and 

 intending to revisit tracts where light may be thrown on the question, 

 we must remark that, as far as our knowledge goes, the chief Ger- 

 man coal distinctly underlies, and is never intermixed with, the 

 Rothe-todte-liegende, or bottom rock of the Permian sera. Though 



* Darstelluna: der Flora des Hainichen-Ebersdorfer und des Flohaer Kohlen- 

 bassins. Fol. Leipzig (Hirzel), 1854. 



