On the Permian Rocks of North-eastern Bohemia, 553 



a transverse section of the rocks exposed by railroad-cuttings be- 

 tween Josefstadt on the S.S.E. and Semil on the N.N.W. These 

 rocks, simply termed Roth-todt-liegende by the Austrian and Saxon 

 geologists, are, however, of very varied mineral characters and of 

 very considerable dimensions. They consist, in ascending order, of, 

 1st, coarse conglomerate and sandstone, followed by thin courses 

 of schist, with fishes (Palceonisci, &c), and interstratified igneous 

 rocks (basaltic clinkstone, porphyry, &c.) ; 2nd, alternations of 

 coarse grits and sandstone, with large Araucarites and other 

 plants ; and 3rd, of bituminous schists, in parts containing coal, 

 with some layers of limestone, copper-slate, &c, and many fossil 

 fishes in bituminous flagstone passing up into red-and-green-spotted 

 sandstones and marls. 



This series of rocks, though subject to local undulations, assumes 

 at Liebstadtl a steady dip to the S.E., or away from the Riesenge- 

 birge ; this is well seen on the railway between Liebstadtl on the 

 S.E. and Semil on the N.W., which section was described by the 

 author in detail. The igneous rocks, chiefly amygdaloids and por- 

 phyries (Melaphyr), occur at various horizons in the series, and are 

 supposed to have been for the most part of contemporaneous forma- 

 tion with the regular aqueous sediments. 



Alluding to the animal remains, as enumerated by Geinitz, the 

 author stated that he was disposed to view the group as having 

 chiefly an estuarine character, the various sauroid fishes and the 

 coarse conglomerates leading to that inference; at the same time 

 he admits that portions of it were probably freshwater and terrestrial 

 accumulations. After pointing out the chief localities of the large 

 fossil stems of the Araucarites and other plants, allusion was made 

 to the opinion of Goppert and Geinitz, that the fauna of this group 

 is, as a whole, distinct from that of the carboniferous age. He 

 shows that the thickness of the whole of these rocks in Northern 

 Bohemia is very considerable, as (at Erlbach) in the adjacent coun- 

 try of Saxony, the inferior half only of these deposits, or the lower 

 Roth-liegende, has actually been sunk through by a shaft, in search 

 of coal, to the depth of 2300 feet, as brought to his notice by Pro- 

 fessor Keilhau. 



In referring to the general relations of these rocks, he suggests 

 that, as they vary very considerably in different regions, they are 

 best defined by the word Permian, which, according to its original 

 definition by himself and his associates in Russia, simply means that 

 such rocks lie between the upper coal, on which they rest uncon- 

 formably, and the lowest portion of the Trias, by which they are 

 covered. 



It was observed that, in proceeding from north to south (in East- 

 ern Germany), the Zechstein thins out; and seeing the vast dimen- 

 sions which the group assumes where true Zechstein is no longer 

 traceable, the author suggests that some of the higher members of 

 the Bohemian Roth-liegende may represent that limestone in time. 

 The term Dyas, recently applied to the whole Permian group by 

 Geinitz, is objected to, since it is based on the theory that the lower 

 portion of the Permian is exclusively of freshwater origin, as con- 



