File:The Quarterly journal of the Geological Society of London (12711706243).jpg

1855..
MURCHISON AND MORRIS THURINGERWALD.
417
It must here be stated, though it forms no part of the Thiiringer-
wald, that all the lower and undulating region between the eastern flank
of that chain and the Erzgebirge is occupied either by Lower Silurian
rocks as above defined, or by bands of Upper Devonian and Lower
Carboniferous strata. The whole of these rocks, in contrast to the
Thiiringerwald, have preserved, to a great extent, a geographical
direction from N.E. to S.W., in unison with their original strike.
Associated with the Devonian and younger rocks of this large tract,
the southern limits of which extend up to the Fichtelgebirge (their
northern edges being buried under the Permian rocks of Gera and
Posneck), there is, as before said, a great interlamination of contem-
poraneous volcanic grit, or ash, which in many parts assumes pre-
cisely the form of the " Schaalstein '^ of the Rhine. Besides these,
certain eruptive rocks, of posterior date, protrude here and there ;
these are quite distinct from the contemporaneous volcanic dejections
above mentioned, and the deposits affected by them have been thrown
into countless breaks and rapid undulations. In this way, black Lower
Silurian slates, with Graptolites and Orthidce, occur in juxtaposition
to Upper Devonian. The latter, often expanded to considerable
dimensions by the alternation of contemporaneous volcanic materials,
and yet containing the same Cypridince and other fossils as at
Saalfeld, are, in some localities, surmounted by sandstones, flinty
slate, and limestone, charged with the unequivocal fossils of the
Carboniferous Limestone; thus removing all doubt respecting the
true order.
With this carboniferous zone terminate, in ascending order, all
the formations, which the Germans have hitherto designated under
the omnivorous word " Grauwacke ;" i.e.j from the azoic base of the
sedimentary rocks to the Millstone Grit inclusive. For all these
rocks constitute, in a physical sense, one great mass in Germany, and,
to a great extent, in France. They are entirely dismembered from
all overlying formations, including the great or Upper Coal-fields of
England, — a feature to which we shall again have occasion to allude
in speaking of the Harz mountains, and on which we shall offer a
general observation or two in our conclusions.
Fig. 3. — Diagram exhibiting the general relations of the Palaeo-
zoic Rocks in Saxony, (chiefly from Naumann.)
Fleha.
g. Sandschiefer. "^
f ( Zechstein. I
-' * \ Kupfer-schiefer, &c. J: Permian.
e. Rothe-todte-liegende. .

• Plant-beds. J
  

d. Upper Carboniferous (Floha and Zwickau). \p • -^
c. Lower Carboniferous (Hainichen-Ebersdorf). J ^^"z.
Devonian.