32 GEOLOGICAL MEMOIRS. 



and decomposed felspar, with all kinds of haematite, psUomelane, limo- 

 nite, yellow ochre, specular iron-ore, stilpnosiderite and decomposed 

 manganese ore. Rarer substances are : lithomarge, calcedony, agate, 

 opal, alumocalcite, fluor-spar, calc-spar, pinguite, siderite, clay iron- 

 stone, polianite, uranite, and even fragments of anthracite. 



These veins, of which about 200 are known, often separate into 

 several parallel chief vein-masses {Haupttriimmer) . Some of the 

 leading zones can be followed for from five to seven miles in length. 



The veins belonging to the iron-group are the most recent vein-for- 

 mations of the Erzgebirge, for they intersect veins of all the previous 

 groups. The process of filling them is occasionally going on at pre- 

 sent by deposition of the hydrated peroxide of iron from warm springs, 

 whereas the formation of the other groups has certauily been long ago 

 completed. 



Iron is such a universal constituent of the mass of the earth, that 

 we may probably assume that the formation of ironstone veins has 

 taken place at all times and in many different ways. If this is the 

 case, then some of them must be equal in age to the most ancient of 

 other veins. In reality, examples of this are furnished by the so-called 

 eisei'nen Hut (iron-covering) of many silver ore veins, which, for in- 

 stance at Przschibram, is partly wrought for ironstone ; and the side- 

 rite veins, often partially changed into limonite, may also be included. 

 It is not improbable that the ironstone veins generally may be consi- 

 dered as the original outcrop of the other vein formations, in such 

 manner, that, where they appear alone, we may suppose other vein- 

 formations to exist at very great depths, which of course does not 

 prevent many superficial fissures from being filled only with ironstone. 



It is not improbable that most of the mineral veins in other regions 

 might be coordinated with these of the Erzgebirge. The materials 

 for doing so however do not as yet exist. [J. N.] 



On Vegetable Remains in the Salt-rock o/Wieliczka. 

 By Professor Goppert. 



[Arbeiten der Schlesischen Gesellschaft.] 



Dr. Goppert has obtained several remains of fossil plants from the 

 salt-mines of Wieliczka, among others, nuts of Juglandites salinarum, 

 Sternb., and a new species ; three kinds of coniferous wood, like that 

 of the brown coal ; pine-cones, probably of two species, similar to the 

 existing Finns Pallasiana, Lamb., and related, together with one of 

 the kinds of coniferous wood just mentioned, to the cones and wood, 

 Pinites ovoideus and Pinites gypsaceus, discovered by him in the 

 gypsum formation of Upper Silesia at Dirschel and Czemitz. The 

 intimalte connection of the gypsum beds of that district with the salt 

 formation has been long known, and similar strata alternate with it 

 in other places ; but this proof from fossil plants may confirm this 

 view still more. [J. N.] 



