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



the chief carbonaceous band. Again, we observed that by far the 

 larger part of the mineral which was brought up in the shaft was not 

 true coal, but scaly bituminous shale. The coal being carefully picked 

 up in pieces which seldom exceeded the fist in size, and usually 

 much smaller, was packed in neat new small barrels of wood, as 

 carefully as herrings are stowed away at a fishing station, — so great 

 is the value set upon the combustible, when transported from its 

 natural position to the interior of Bavaria. At Neuhaus, where the 

 pits are sunk in a deep depression from beneath an escarpment in 

 the Rothe-todte-liegende, the coal is extracted in larger and cleaner 

 fragments. 



On the whole, it was manifest that the coal strata around the 

 Thuringian chain, wherever we examined them, had been broken 

 through and disturbed by those igneous rocks which played a still 

 more important part in the older portion of the following or Permian 

 sera, the strata of which are so enormously developed in and around 

 these mountains, and especially in their northern portion. 



Permian Deposits of the Thiiringerwald. 



Rothe-todte-liegende. — A great contrast is visible between the grey 

 and dark coal strata of which we have taken leave and the overlying 

 red deposits, which, under the name of Rothe-todte-hegende, occupy 

 so large a part of this region. (See fig. 4, p. 424.). Judging from 

 their fine lamination and their imbedded fossil plants, the former 

 have unquestionably resulted from tranquil deposition under water, 

 probably fluviatile or lacustrine; whilst the latter, which we now 

 proceed to consider, have been formed in a period of turbulence, 

 accompanied by the extrusion of much igneous matter. 



The great red formation named the Rothe-todte-liegende has been 

 described by so many German authors, that it is unnecessary to 

 dilate upon its structure. We would, however, remark, that, much 

 as we have examined the deposit in different parts of Germany, we 

 know of no tract in which it is of larger vertical dimensions or is so 

 exhibited in mountainous masses and on the sides of deep ravines as 

 in the Thiiringerwald. 



The chief development of the deposit is seen in the northern half of 

 the chain. It is singularly well displayed, for example, both in quarries 

 and on the sides of the high road leading to Frankfort, immediately 

 above Eisenach, and on the flanks of the hill on which the convent 

 and castle of Wartzburg stand, once the residence of Luther. 



It is indeed to be studied in so many localities, whether on the 

 flanks of the northern ridge or in its interior, where it is associated 

 with porphyries, that M. Credner's map and the excellent roads both 

 longitudinal and transversal will lead every traveller to numerous 

 exhibitions of the rock. 



Though argillaceous and thick-bedded sandstones of dark red 

 brick colour are chiefly exposed at the base of some of the natural 

 sections where the deposit overlies the coal strata, and whilst such 

 finely levigated red substance forms the matrix of many of the 



