Chap. XV.] SILURIAN ROCKS OF THE THURINGERWALD. 
383 
unlike the bottom rocks of the British sections described in the Second Chapter 
of this work. These masses occupy the highest grounds of the Oberland of 
Meiningen, attaining an elevation of nearly 3000 English feet above the sea. 
2. The beds of this lofty plateau fold over both to the north-west and south- 
east, and are throughout affected by a slaty cleavage, which extends to all the 
overlying formations. As the planes of this cleavage, usually plunging to the 
north-west at a high angle, are dominant, and often obliterate the lines of true 
bedding, they have misled some observers with respect to the physical succes- 
sion of the strata. 
Attentive observation, however, convinced me that, rolling over in undula- 
tions to the south-east, the above rocks ('Grime Grauwacke' of Eichter), con- 
taining the Fucoid (?) Phycodes circinatum, Eichter, and the pygidium of a 
Trilobite, are overlain by the group which Eichter terms 'Graue Grauwacke.' 
The latter is composed of much slate, with hard siliceous sandstone, courses of 
limestone, and some alum-schists, one portion of the slaty rocks being exten- 
sively quarried for the manufacture of slate-pencils (Criffelstein). The lower 
beds exhibit fine examples of so-called Fucoids, among which are Fucoides Alle- 
ghaniensis, together with Myrianites, and the Graptolites (?) Cladograpsus nerei- 
tarum, Nereograpsus Sedgwicki, and N. Cambreusis (Nereites*, Sil. Syst.). The 
upper beds especially contain Graptolites, Orthoceratites, and some forms of 
Trilobites. Of the truth of this succession I convinced myself by examining, 
with M. Engelhardt and Professor Morris, that portion of the section of Ober- 
Steinach which pertains to the Silurian rocks. A species of Trilobite found by 
M. Engelhardt approaches near to, if it be not identical with, Ogygia (Asa- 
phus) Buchii, whilst a form of Maclurea collected by M. Eichter closely resembles 
M. magna, Hall ; and, as some of the worm-like bodies (Nereites), and several 
of the Graptolites, both double and single, are not distinguishable from forms 
known in the British Isles, there can be no doubt that we have in this slaty 
group a true equivalent of a Lower Silurian formation, and probably of Llan- 
deilo age. 
The positive identity of the Thuringian strata with their equivalents in 
Britain has been further established by the occurrence, not only of the same 
species of Annelide or large Nereites, as above noticed (see the woodcut, p. 201), 
but also of Protovirgularia dichotoma, specimens of which Eichter has detected 
in Germany, apparently identical with those found in the Lammermuir Hills 
of Scotland. 
It would further appear that there are strata in the Southern Thiiringerwald 
which by their fossils approach to the Caradoc and Lower Llandovery rocks 
of Britain; for Eichter has shown f that, together with Trinucleus, Phacops 
Stokesii is present, as well as Pentamerus oblongus and P. globosus. With 
these also are the well-known British Lower- Silurian fossils, Euomphalus Corn- 
densis, Orthis testudinaria, 0. alternata, 0. lata, Leptsena sericea, &c, some of 
which are Lower Llandovery species. 
The upper beds of alum-slate and flinty slate are principally characterized by 
Graptolites, several of which are species identical with those described by Port- 
lock, Salter, M'Coy, Harkness, Nicol, and myself, chiefly from the Lower Silurian 
of Britain ; and among these, as seen in the work of Geinitz, or identified 
by Eichter, are the following: — Diplograpsus folium, His.; D. palmeus and 
D. ovatus, Barr. $ D., teretiusculus, His. ; Graptolithus priodon, Bronn ; G. 
* Geinitz regards these as belonging to the Graptolite family. 
t Zeitschr. der deutsehen geol. Gesell. 1853, p. 439 ; ib. 1854, p. 275, note. 
