1855.] MURCHISON AND MORRIS — THURINGERWALD. 425 



there represented, is to the S.W. of the village of Schmerbach, not 

 far distant from Waltershausen near Gotha, where it rests on unequi- 

 vocal Rothe-todte-liegende, in the form of red and green spotted 

 sandstones, flagstones, &c. 



Kupfer-schiefer. — At the same place, we also examined the ex- 

 posure of the justly celebrated bituminous black schist called Kupfer- 

 schiefer (fig. 4, c^), which having been followed from its outcrop, 

 like that which is represented in the diagram, has been worked from 

 beneath overlying deposits throughout such extensive districts of 

 Central Germany. Though here only exhibiting a thickness of 

 about 5 feet, this black schist is most neatly defined in its position 

 between the grey pebbly rock beneath and the overlying bands of 

 limestone. The schist is little cupriferous at this spot, but we found 

 in it many fragments of the characteristic fossil fishes. 



Zechstein and Sandschiefer. — Above the Kupfer-schiefer follow 

 thin stratified layers of marly limestone (fig. 4, c^), on which the 

 thick masses of Zechstein repose, that contain the Productus hor- 

 ridus and many other fossils. With its lateral extension this forma- 

 tion assumes varied mineral characters, some of which are more 

 decisively impressed upon it in certain localities than in others. 

 Thus, extending from Eisenach by Heiligenstein and Seebach to 

 Schmerbach, Fischbach, Ilmenau, Konigsee, and Saalfeld, on the 

 north-eastern flank of the chain, — or by Altenstein, Liebenstein, 

 Herges, Eisfeld, and Haich near Kronach, on the south-western 

 flank, the ordinary limestone passes up into, and is often entirely 

 represented by, thick masses of true dolomite. This dolomite, in 

 which organic remains are found, as well as in the adjacent marly 

 limestone, forms highly picturesque clifl*s, particularly around Lie- 

 benstein, the vertical faces of which are frequently marked by 

 natural openings leading into extensive caverns, occasionally con- 

 taining in the detritus of their floors the remains of extinct fossil 

 mammalia. 



It is also in this zone, and chiefly where the rock is a dolomite, that 

 the great gypseous masses which so characterize the German Zech- 

 stein occur ; and of these we shall have occasion to speak more at 

 length in treating of the region of the Harz. In the region now 

 under review, the largest natural exhibitions of these gypseous 

 rocks which came under our notice lie immediately to the east of 

 Saalfeld, or near the foot of the lofty escarpments of the overlying 

 Bunter-Sandstein. 



At Rheinhards-brunnen, east of Gotha, a large mass of gypsum, 

 which has been opened out by a gallery, is here so highly crystalline 

 and transparent, that it forms (under the name of the Glas-hohle) 

 an object of great attraction and wonder to numerous tourists *. 



It is also to be remarked, that iron ores, both the " braun-eisen" 

 and spathose varieties, are extracted from the dolomitic or Upper 



* Her Majesty the Queen visited this splendid cavern in 1845, and H.R.H. 

 Prince Albert transmitted some magnificent specimens of the crystallized gypsum 

 to England, one of which is to be seen in the raineralogical gallery of the British 

 Museum. 



