316 
SILURIA. 
[Chap. XIII. 
mining the tract in company with my able instructor Professor Senft of Eisenach, 
and Professor Rupert Jones, it is the upper portion only of that deposit which is 
exposed. All the ascending order from it to the superjacent Permian rocks has 
now, by the cutting of the Frankfort Railroad, been as clearly laid open to the 
W.S.W. as it was previously on the eastern or opposite side of Eisenach. 
The reader who inspects this section will, therefore, have a good idea of the 
development of the Permian rocks of Northern Germany, with the exception of 
the lowest beds of the Roth-liegende. 
At the north-eastern extremity of the Thiiringerwald, the mass of red rock 
a in the section is seen to be covered by about 1400 feet of strata of red breccias, 
conglomerates, sandstones, and shale (&, c, d), terminating upwards in the light- 
coloured or whitish conglomerate (e) which supports the Kupfer-Schiefer (/) 
and Zechstein (g), surmounted by the Bunter Schiefer (h). 
The bands of the conglomeratic series, well exposed on the sides of the steep 
hills on either flank of the valley of Eisenach, and under the lofty hill on which 
stands the old Castle of Wartburg, celebrated as the residence of Luther, have 
been named by Professor Senft, in ascending order, thus : — 
1. Quartz-conglomerate (6). This is truly a breccia composed of angular frag- 
ments, chiefly of quartz, in a red matrix, but with some fragments of mica-schist, 
slaty rocks, old porphyries, &c. This rock, though extensively denuded in the 
valley of Eisenach, rises to the west of the town into peaked and turreted masses 
having a thickness of 600 feet. It is well to remark here that this and the 
other so-called conglomerates of this age in many parts of Germany are es- 
sentially angular breccias, which could not have been formed by the rolling 
action of waves on a shore, but must have been tumultuously and suddenly 
heaped together. 
2. Dark red shale and sandstone (c), 250 feet. These beds, on the contrary, 
mark a period of quiescence, when the finely triturated sand and mud were ac- 
cumulated. 
3. Granitic conglomerate (d), also a breccia ; chiefly distinguished by contain- 
ing fragments of a granite now unknown in the Thiiringerwald, but resembling 
a rock still visible in the Harz. This breccia, with interlaminated bands of 
deep-red sandy shale, supports the Castle of Wartburg *. Folding over to the 
west, this last-mentioned rock has been tunnelled through in making the railroad 
to Frankfort, and is ascertained to have a thickness of about 500 feet. 
Now, whether we follow these rocks to the west or to the east, we find that 
the uppermost portion of the granitic breccia or conglomerate, d, as indicated in 
the section, graduates upwards into, and is succeeded by, another conglomerate, 
e, of a light-grey colour, and therefore called locally the ' Grau-liegende ' f, by 
Senft. This is the 1 Weiss-liegende ' of most German authors, and lies imme- 
diately beneath the Kupfer-Schiefer. Mineralogically, it is perfectly united with 
the subjacent Roth-liegende and with the overlying Copper-slate, /, by the dif- 
fusion of slightly cupriferous green earth through all the junction-beds. Again, 
in ascending still higher, an equally clear transition into the overlying lime- 
stone is seen by the conglomerate becoming somewhat calcareous and cuprife- 
rous ; whilst in other parts of Germany, as near Gera, fossils even of the 
Zechstein have been found in this conglomerate subjacent to the Kupfer- 
Schiefer. Then follows the thin black course of the Kupfer-Schiefer, /, with its 
* This is the castle in which the great Pro- gende,' is not fortunate ; for G-einitz applies it, as 
testant reformer, Luther, was secluded by the we shall presently see, to the lowest member of the 
Elector of Saxony. deposit near Dresden. ' Weiss-liegende ' is the 
t The employment of this term, ' Grrau-lie- usual term. 
