116 Dr. Feistmantel — Bohemian Coal Fauna and Passage-Beds. 
opinion, taking tbis Gas-coal in tbe Kladno-Rakonitz Coal-field to be 
analogous to tbe Koblenrotbliegendes in the Saarbrücken basin, or 
in otber words as Lower Permian, in wbicb my own explanations 
were acknowledged. 
About tbe Nürschan Gas-coal, from wbicb so many more animals 
are known, and from wbence Dr. A. Fritscb bas obtained tbe greater 
part of bis material, tbe literature is a little more complicated. 
First we find the Gas-coal mentioned in Prof. Geinitz’s voluminous 
and important work, “ Steinkohlen Deutschlands und anderer Länder 
Europas,” 1865, i. vol. ; but the Professor did not know any animals 
from there, and of tbe plants only two species are speciallv mentionpd, 
amongst wbicb, as tbe most frequent, Sphenopteris Gravenhorsti, 
Brong., which I found again in my examinations. Tbe Professor 
knew tbe Gas-coal also only from tbe mines in tbe immediate neigh- 
bourliood of Nürschan. 
More lately, however, in 1870, I visited tbis Coal-field and 
collected plants in tbe more Western mines of Nürschan, as well 
from tbe Gas-coal as from the Shale above, in tbe mines of Dr. 
Pankraz, wbile Dr. Anton Fritscb had already at tbat time some 
material of animal-remains to determine. 
At tbat time be wrote tbe first note 1 and spoke of these re- 
mains as Permian ; at tbe same time 1 wrote my first paper on tbe 
plant-remains from this stratum in June, 1870, 2 and pointed out 
already strongly as very interesting tbe occurrence of tbis Permian 
Fauna with an almost entirely Carboniferous Flora. 
In a reference to tbis paper of mine in Geinitz und Leonhard ? s 
Jahrbuch, 1870, tbe Carboniferous age of tbe plants was acknow- 
ledged, tbe Permian character of tbe animals could not be denied ; 
and to exjdain tbis, an immigration or colonization of tbose 
migratory animals (as tbey are called there) in the Carboniferous 
strata was suggested as possible. But it certainly says tbat in our 
Pilsen basin the Carboniferous Flora was still growing, wbile tbese 
Permian animals bad already begun to live, wbicb only proves the 
exist ence of the former in Permian times. 
Later I paid tbree more visits to tbis Coal-field and wrote my 
otber papers on tbis subject. 3 In all tbese papers I declared as 
a palaeontological maxim, tbat in tbis case tbe animal-remains will 
certainly have to decide, and tbat a surviving of an already exist- 
ing Flora is more natural, and I then declared tbe Nürschan Gas- 
coal as also of lowest Permian ; parallel with Herr Weiss’s Kohlen- 
rotbliegendes. 
Prof. Geinitz, however, maintained his view of an “immigration” 
of “dyadic forrns.” 
1 Sitzungsberichte der k. bohm. Gesellsch. d. "Wissensch. 1870. April. 
2 Ibidem, June, 1870. 
3 Beitrag zur Kenntniss und Ausdehnung des Nürschaner Gasschiefers, etc., Jahrb. 
d. k. k. geol. Reichsanst. 1872.— Ueber das Verhaltniss der bohm. Kohlen- und 
Permformation, etc., Ibidem, 1873. — A letter to Prof. Geinitz, in Geinitz und 
Leonhard N. Jahrb., 1872, p. 303. — Ueber den Nürschaner Gasschiefer, Zeitschr. d. 
D. geol. Gesellsch. 1873.— Ueber Verbreitung und geol. Stellung der verkieselten 
Araucaritenstamme, etc., Sitzungsb. d. k. bohm. Gesellsch. d. Wiss. 1873, etc. 
