1855.] MURCHISON AND MORRIS — THE HARZ. 441 



locality from west to east in the fact, that a limestone of another 

 mineral character, which succeeds to the last, contains many highly 

 characteristic fossils of the Carboniferous Limestone. These occur 

 chiefly in detached fragmentary portions of the rock, resulting from 

 partial excavations made by miners in search of ore in the highly 

 mineralized tract north of Grund-, where, besides lead, stray veins of 

 barytes are apparent even at the surface. 



In the spots to which we were conducted by M. Adolf Roemer, 

 we could indeed detect no physical signs of any order of succession, 

 except the very obscure evidence above noticed in proceeding from 

 those strata on the west, which our contemporary considers to be 

 *' Culm," whilst we view them as unequivocal Devonian iron schists, 

 probably lower. We were, however, informed by a miner named 

 Diedrich, who has been the collector of fossils around Grund, that at 

 a spot called the " Ecke," a high point in the wood, which M. Ad. 

 Roemer had not then examined, and about two miles east of Grund, 

 a dark grey limestone, as distinguished from the white-veined De- 

 vonian rock, occurs in regular beds, exposed in a thickness of about 

 10 feet (Section fig. 8, c). 



Whether this collector obtained any of his dark-coloured fossils 

 from this solid rock, or from fragments at other spots, it is manifest 

 that such fossils are nearly all well-known Carboniferous types ; 

 amounting, according to Ad. Roemer, to about forty species, whilst 

 the same authority enumerates upwards of two hundred from the 

 adjacent Devonian limestone. 



In saying thus much as derived from fossil evidence only, we have 

 introduced a general section across the Hiibigenstein (see fig. 8), to 

 show how diflficult it is in a hasty visit to assign the true physical 

 order to this distorted, mineralized, and amorphous mass. Obscure 

 as this hilly tract is from its dense woodlands, still a close compari- 

 son of the works of the miners — particularly a register of all the 

 strata passed through in a great adjacent adit, which is about a mile 

 in length ; to say nothing of the natural features which may be 

 detected in the gorges and the summits, — would no doubt yield up 

 to close researches like those of our Government Survey, much more 

 accurate results than any which have been yet obtained. 



In the mean time, the fossils which are found in and about 

 Grund entitle us to say, that they exhibit a transition from true 

 Devonian into the Carboniferous group. They, in fact, quite con- 

 firm the description of this tract given in the year 1839, which states, 

 " We have no doubt that the calcareous mass of Grund is a true 

 Devonian limestone, and that the overlying beds are the equiva- 

 lents of those parts of the Westphalian sections which extend 

 from the great [Carboniferous] limestone to the base of the Coal- 

 measures*." 



Carboniferous Rocks. — From what has already been said, it will 

 have been observed, that the lowest members of the Carboniferous 

 rocks, where they are in contact with or pass into the Upper De- 

 * Trans. Geol. Soc. Lond. 2 ser. vol. vi. p. 289. 



