Chap. XV.]                 PALEOZOIC ROCKS OF EUROPE.                           369
 

CHAPTER XV.
PRIMEVAL SUCCESSION IN GERMANY.

GENERAL  SKETCH  OF  THE  CHARACTER   OF  THE  OLDER  ROCKS  EXTENDING WESTWARDS PROM
TURKEY-IN-EUROPE   INTO   THE   CARPATHIANS  AND   ALPS.—DEVONIAN AND CARBONIFEROUS

ROCKS    OF   POLAND,   SILESIA,   AND    MORAVIA.----LAURENTIAN,    CAMBRIAN,   AND    SILURIAN

ROCKS OF   BOHEMIA AND  BAVARIA.----SILURIAN, DEVONIAN, AND CARBONIFEROUS ROCKS OP

SAXONY, THE THIJRINGERWALD, ETC.

Whilst the general order of the older strata is clearly exposed in that
larger portion of Russia-in-Europe which has from the remotest antiquity
been exempted from the intrusion of every description of plutonic or vol¬
canic rocks, we no sooner pass to the south-west and enter the Danubian
and Turkish Provinc s, than we meet with masses more or less crystalhne,
which, hke those of the Ural Mountains and Siberia, have been penetrated
at various localities by igneous matter. These extend from the Balkan
into the ranges of Thrace and Transylvania on the one hand, and into the
Carpathians on the other; but they have as yet been so little examined in
detaU as to leave us in ignorance of the extent to which a Palaeozoic classi¬
fication can be applied to them. Erom the travels of Eoue, Visquenel,
"Warington Smyth, and others, it is known, however, that these rocks are
usually so crystalhne as to afford few spots like those near Constanti¬
nople, just alluded to, where the palaeontologist can expect to observe even
a few rare fossils.

VHien, however, we reach the Eastern or Austrian Alps, we find that,
although most of the older strata forming a great portion of those moun¬
tains have been metamorphosed, there are certaiu ' oases,' at wide intervals,
indicative of a succession similar to that which we have been following
through other countries. Thus, in the ridge south of Werfen, in the
Salzburg tract, Orthocerata, Orthidae, Cardiolae, and other fossils have been
detected, marking a remnant of a true Silurian zone, the chief mass of
which is in a crystalhne state. In the Styrian Alps near Gratz, certain
grey schists and calcareous flagstones contain many Devonian fossils; and
similar rocks have there been traced through a district of some extent.

Near Bleiberg, in the Carinthian portion of the Eastern Alps, is a limestone
with large Producti which is of Carboniferous age; whilst in various parts of
the Western Alps the rocks contain courses of anthracite associated with
Plants of the same era. On the whole, however, it may be said that, in nearly
all the coimtries extending over the southern regions of Germany, the clear
separation of the Palaeozoic rocks, which can be easily effected in many other
parts of Europe, is impracticable.    This is doubtless owing, in great measure,

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