GOPPERT ON THE COAL FORMATION. 13 



district of Estadilla, traces of brown coal or lignite appear on the sur- 

 face, between marls of dark colour and bituminous limestones, as well 

 as clays of various dark colours, containing crystals of selenite, plates 

 of mica, pyrites, sulphur, and assuming in some places the appear- 

 ance of burnt plastic clay. This, as well as a bed of lignite, which, 

 with shght interruptions, extends through the whole ravine of Nuestra 

 S'^^ de la Carrodilla, has led to the supposition of the existence of 

 beds of coal at a great depth, and has given rise to the belief that this 

 formation is the continuation of those which extend from the south- 

 west of Lerida to the Ebro and the Segre. It burns well, with a bright 

 flame, gives out much smoke, and emits a foetid ammoniacal smell. 



The neighbourhood of Zaragoza siiows that this city is built on a 

 tertiary formation, and evidences of old lacustrine deposits, with their 

 peculiar fossils, occur in the surrounding districts. The basin of 

 the Gallego also consists principally of freshwater limestone, gyp- 

 sum, marly gypsum, sand, sandstone and argillaceous marls. The 

 freshwater limestone is compact grey or whitish-yellow, containing 

 lacustrine shells, principally Jjimnceus and Planorbis ; it is abundant 

 in many places as well as the gypsum, which is much worked, and 

 is both granular and laminar. The gypsum is found alternating 

 with calcareous and argillaceous marls. Other beds of sands and 

 marls are described in different positions belonging to this forma- 

 tion, and particularly a bed of agglomerated sandstone six miles 

 south-west of Huesca, consisting of fine-grained sand of a reddish- 

 brown colour, sufficiently cemented together to be used for building 

 purposes. 



The above extracts from these Spanish 'Anales de Minas,' show 

 that some progress is being made in that country in geological inves- 

 tigations, and that an interest for the science has already taken root 

 there, which we trust will flourish and in time produce good fruit. 



W. I. H. 



On the Fossil Flora of the Goal-formation, especially in 

 Silesia. By Professor Goppert of Breslau. 



In the year 1844 the Haarlem Scientific Society offered a prize for 

 the following subject : '' To determine by a careful examination of the 

 various seams of coal, whether the beds of coal were formed entirely 

 out of plants that grew on the spot, or whether they originated from 

 vegetable matter floated from other places, and also to inquire whether 

 different coal-beds have had a distinct origin." 



At the meeting of the Society on the 23rd May 1846, the prize 

 was awarded to an essay by Dr. Goppert. This essay has now been 

 published in a quarto volume, with twenty-two plates of the plants 

 found in the shales and sandstones of this formation, and by Dr. 

 Goppert also in the coal itself. The author gives the following sum- 

 mary of the chief results of this essay * : — 



* Karsten und v. Dechen's Arcliivfiir Miner. (1849). 



