XVI. — Remarks on some Parts of the Taunus and other Mountains of 

 the Dutchy of Nassau ; — in Explanation of Specimens presented 

 to the Geological Society of London. 



By Sir Alexander CRICHTON, M.D. Knt. G.S.W. F.R.S. 



vice-president of the geological society, member of the royal society 



of sciences of gottingen, honorary member of the imperial 



academy of sciences of st. petersburgh, etc. 



[Read Feb. 3rd, 1826.] 



IHE fossil remains of organized bodies belonging to the grauwacke, to- 

 gether with the rocks and minerals which I have the honour of presenting to 

 the Society, were collected in various excursions which I made last autumn 

 in the south and central parts of the dutchy of Nassau. 



The chief object of my journey was to witness the medical effects of the 

 many remarkable mineral waters with which that part of Germany abounds, 

 and which are very different from any that are found in Great Britain. This 

 must plead my apology for a want of more minute details in some of the geo- 

 logical observations which I have had occasion to make. 



The dutchy of Nassau is a very mountainous country, except on its south 

 frontier, where it comprehends a part of the valley of the Mayne. Its moun- 

 tains are a part of the great and well known formation of transition and trap 

 rocks which extends from the north-west of Germany, across the Rhine, in 

 the direction of Valenciennes. But those of the dutchy have received the 

 name of the Taunus; although from the little that Tacitus has said concerning 

 them, it appears that the appellation was given by the ancients to the high 

 mountains in the immediate neighbourhood of Wiesbaden, where a new Ro- 

 man colony had been founded, and where the empress Agrippina was born*. 



The boundaries of the modern Taunus mountains are the Westerwald on 

 the north, and the valley of the Mayne on the south. The valley of the river 

 Wetter, called the Wetterau, is the eastern boundary, and the RJiine the 



* Annal. lib. i. cap. 56. et xii. 28. 

 2 m3 



