THE DISTRICT OF SCTTEMXITZ, IIUNGARY. 293 



the paloeontological, petrographical, and chemical researches which 

 have been carried on in the Vienna Institute, in illustration of the 

 work done in the field, it is quite unnecessary to speak in this 

 place ; they are far too well known to all geologists to need reca- 

 pitulation. 



Nor do the results already enumerated by any means exhaust the 

 mass of materials which the geologist finds ready to aid him in his 

 researches within the Austrian dominions. The Geological Institutes 

 of Vienna and Buda-Pest still continue to oarry their valuable 

 explorations of the geology of the country into still greater detail ; 

 and numerous private associations of scientific workers in every 

 state of the Empire, or connected with its several universities, con- 

 stantly make the most valuable new contributions to our science. 



I have to thankfully acknowledge the very great liberality and 

 courtesy with which the various sources of information were thrown 

 open to aid me in the task I had undertaken. In Vienna the 

 director of the Reichsanstalt and his colleagues afforded me every 

 facility in my inquiries, while, in the University, Prof. Suess and Dr. 

 jNeumayr, and, in the Hof-Mineralien-Cabinet, Prof. Tschermak and 

 Dr. Brezina rendered me equally kind assistance. In Buda-Pest, 

 Prof. Szabo, at the University, and Dr. von Hantken, as director of 

 of the Hungarian Survey, spared no pains in affording me all 

 needful help ; while in Schemnitz I had the most ready aid of the 

 veteran geologist, Von Pettko, of Directors Poeschl, and Pech, and 

 of Prof. Winkler of the Berg-Akademie. 



In spite, however, of all the important assistance afforded by the 

 labours of preceding investigators, the student of the Hungarian 

 volcanic rocks finds himself placed in one respect at a great disad- 

 vantage, in comparison with the opportunities whieh he enjoys in 

 examining the similar rocks in Scotland. The absence of the mag- 

 nificent sea-cliffs with their extensive and wonderfully clear sections 

 (which, as I have shown, afford us such invaluable aid in determining 

 the true relations of the various rock-masses in the latter country) 

 constitutes a great drawback to the successful investigation of the 

 structure of the Hungarian volcanos ; and a further difficulty is 

 created by the circumstance that very large portions of the country 

 are covered by almost impenetrable forests. The analogies which 

 are presented by a district of which the internal structure is so 

 admirably exposed by denuding agencies as is that of the Western 

 Isles of Scotland, may therefore be not unreasonably supposed capa- 

 ble of throwing new light upon the more intricate and difficult, 

 because less clearly exhibited, relations of the volcanic, plutonic, 

 metamorphic and sedimentary rock-masses of Hungary and Tran- 

 sylvania. 



There is no portion of the Transleithan provinces of the Austrian 

 Empire in which the characters and relative positions of the different 

 volcanic rocks can be so conveniently studied as in the district 

 which surrounds the famous old mining-towns of Schemnitz, 

 Kremnitz, and Konigsberg. And perhaps few areas could be named 

 which, Avithin so small a space, present rock- masses in more puzzling 



