Chap. XIII.] 
PEKMIAN ROCKS IN SAXONY. 
325 
Notwithstanding the endeavours of my distinguished friend Professor Ferd, 
Komer to clear up the ambiguous relations of the strata near Klein Neundorf *, 
the section appeared to me to be so very obscure that, even if the Ichthyolites 
found in the schists of that insulated spot had proved to be Carboniferous (which 
they are not, but, on the contrary, distinct Permian types), no satisfactory in- 
ferences could be drawn. There, to the south-west of the hamlet, schistose grau- 
wacke, like the shillat of Cornwall, and probably of Devonian age, is observable 
in the ravines, between which and certain outcrops of Kiesel-Schiefer and amor- 
phous crystallized limestone, and showing no visible connexion either with the 
Roth-liegende or Zechstein, lies the dark flaggy schist, used for slating, which 
contains Fishes and Plants. M. Sachse of Lowenberg obligingly accompanied 
me to the ground ; and from him I obtained specimens of Acanthodes gracilis and 
other Fishes, all distinct, according to the latest examination, from Carboniferous 
species. 
The opinion, therefore, of M. Beyrich, that the Roth-liegende should be 
classed with the Coal-deposits, receives the same refutation by a rigid appeal 
to the animal remains as it does from a thorough scrutiny of the vegetable 
contents of the deposit, as will be shown hereafter on the evidence of Professor 
Goppert. 
In my last visit to Bohemia, in 1862, when accompanied by Dr. Anton Fritz 
of Prague, I made a special examination of the tract which, exclusively occupied 
by Permian rocks, lies between the fortresses of Koniggratz and Josephstadt 
on the south and the flanks of the Riesengebirge. This undulating country, which 
is traversed by the railroad from Pardubitz to Zwickau, was the scene of the great 
slaughter which recently took place in many combats between the Austrians 
and Prussians, and ended in the great battle of Sadowa. In this tract the Per- 
mian strata are represented by the Austrian geologists as being divided into no 
less than eight parts, each marked by a separate colour on their maps. Sand- 
stones and conglomerates abound in the lower part, with shales and limestones 
with fossil Fishes like those to be mentioned at Liebenstadt in the central por- 
tion, and again sandstones in the higher, the whole being marked by powerful 
igneous masses, some of which were evidently contemporaneous with the strata, 
others posterior and intrusive f. 
The immediate neighbourhood of Dresden has also proved to be very illustra- 
tive of the great mass of the Lower Permian rocks, under the able researches 
and classification of Professor Geinitz. Every geologist who visits the ad- 
mirable collection in the Zwinger Gallery, still more if he has explored the tracts 
where the specimens have been obtained, will recognize the value of such a 
labour J. 
The lowest portion of the Permian rocks of Dresden overlying the Coal which 
* Zeitschr. Geol. G-esells. vol. ix. p. 51. substitute for it the word ' Dyas,' thereby to ex- 
t For the description of this tract by myself, see press the fact that in Saxony the group is essen- 
Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc. vol. xix. p. 297 &c. tially composed of two formations, the Eoth- 
X In his instructive memoir on the Plants of the liegende and the Zechstein. This term, however, 
Eoth-liegendes and Zechstein of Saxony (which like any other which is founded on numerical 
deposits he has included, like myself, in the Per- division, cannot be generally applied. Thus, in 
mian group), " Die Leitpflanzen des Eoth-lie- Eussia the limestones form numerous bands, 
genden und des Zechsteingebirges, oder der Per- interlaced with marls and conglomerates. In 
mischen Formation in Saehsen," Dr. H. B. Gem- many countries, indeed, the Permian is one mass 
itz, separating the Permian flora of the Eoth- and of sandstones ; in others, as in North- western 
Weiss-liegendes (as Gutbier and Goppert have America, it is one calcareous formation. I there- 
done) from that of the Coal-period, and enume- fore dissented from the innovation of M. Marcou, 
rating many peculiar species, specially illustrates which Professor Geinitz adopted (see Edinb. New 
(in two plates) the genera Palaeophycus, Aletho- Phil. Journ. 1862, vol. xv. p. 71, and Phil. Mag. 
pteris, Hymenophyllites,Ullmannia, Guglielmites, ser. 4. vol. xxiii. p. 65) ; and I am now happy to find 
Walchia, and Cardiocarpon. that the term ' Permian ' is still generally used by 
My eminent friend Professor Geinitz, after he 1 
had adopted the term ' Permian,' thought fit to 
