THE DISTKICT OF SCHEMNITZ, HUNGARY. 307 



seen, the name of " propylites" for the " greenstone-trachytes." 

 Bichthofen, however, io his later works, appears to have regarded 

 his " propylites " as of slightly older date than the trachytes, 

 though forming part of the same series of igneous outbursts during 

 the Tertiary period. 



At the present day, so convinced are some of the most eminent 

 penologists of the essential identity of these two classes of rocks, 

 in Hungary, the Tertiary greenstones and the trachytes, that they 

 make no distinction whatever in the terms which they apply to 

 them — Tschermak and Doelter, for example, calling them both 

 " hornblende-andesites," and Szabo designating them equally as 

 " trachytes." 



With regard to the stratified and metamorphic rocks, the discovery 

 of fossils in some of the less crystalline schists and limestones has 

 fully established their Triassic age. An isolated mass of limestone- 

 conglomerate, which occurs near Eisenbach, is crowded with INum- 

 mulites, and therefore clearly belongs to the Eocene. With respect 

 to the more altered and granitic rocks, namely the masses of gneiss, 

 mica-schist, quartzite, crystalline limestone, &c, with the intrusive 

 syenite and granite, it was suggested by Yon Adrian in 1866* that 

 they might belong to the Devonian, an opinion that was adopted 

 with some hesitation by Yon Lipoid in 1867f; in the more recent 

 publications of the Vienna Ileichsanstaltj, the probability of their 

 being of Dyas or Permian age is entertained by Eranz von Hauer. 

 But all these identifications rest upon the insecure foundation of 

 mere mineralogical resemblance, palaeontological evidence being 

 entirely wanting. 



Dr. Daubeny, who paid a somewhat hurried visit to Hungary in 

 1823, appears to have been greatly impressed by the complicated re- 

 lations of the granitic, dioritic, and trachytic masses of the Schemnitz 

 area ; and in 1848§ he made the remark that if the granitic rocks of 

 this district could be regarded as of equally modern date with the 

 trachytes, many difficulties in the interpretation of the geological 

 structure of the area would thereby be removed. Unfortunately, 

 however, he had no opportunity of revisiting the country, and of 

 testing how far his suggestion might be tenable. 



It is in this important suggestion of Dr. Daubeny, as I propose to 

 show, that the true key to the correct understanding of the struc- 

 ture of the Schemnitz district is to be found. 



Beudant is undoubtedly right in regarding the "granite and 

 syenite" of the central tract at Schemnitz as being most intimately 

 associated with the " greenstone," and, indeed, as forming part of 

 the same mass. So strikingly is this the case, that in none of the 

 geological maps of the district that have been published is there 



* " Das siidwestlicbe Ende des Scheninitzer-Krermiitzer Tracby^stockes," 

 Jahrbucb der k.-k. Reichsanstalt Wien, Bel. xvi. p. 355-477. 



t " Der Bergbau yon Schemnitz in TJngarn," ibid. Bd. xv. p. 317-458. * 



\ " Geologische Uebersichtskarte der osterreicbisch-ungarischen Monarchie, 

 Blatt iii. Westkarpathen," ibid. Bd. xix. (1869) S. 512. 



§ A Description of Active and Extinct Volcanos, 2nd ed. (1848) pp. 129, 

 loU. 



