Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 33.djvu/239

Rh caused by the numerous dialects. The Austrian geologists are fully abreast with the times.

But, turning from Vienna northwest, we come into Bohemia, the scene of Barrande's great labors. Its mineral springs (38), of which Carlsbad, whence the twinned orthoclase, is the most famous, and Marienbad the best tasting; its coal-basin, its phonolites (that of Neuhof shows the nepheline to the naked eye), and basalts and porphyries, are all noteworthy (35). The rocks near Marienbad have been recently described by H. B. Patton. In this region, too, is a place that should stir the soul of every American, Joachimsthal, the birthplace of the dollar, i. e., thaler. The silver-mines are still carried on in a picayune sort of way, largely for fancy ores, uranium, etc.; but by their gradual exhaustion the population is being driven into the manufacture of Bohemian lace and kid gloves. Bohemian garnets are too well known to need mention.

Passing north, we will follow the valley of the Elbe, which has cut its way through the massive Quader sandstone, leaving it in plateaus or isolated towers, affording the finest specimen of canon scenery known to me in Europe. The way is lined with quarries, for the cream-colored sandstone is extensively used for building in Dresden and elsewhere, and takes the place of the Bunt or new red sandstone in the region of the Rhine. Not far from Dresden, in Plauen, are large quarries in the rock that is the German type of syenite, and is supposed to have no quartz.

Thence we may go on to Leipsic, the seat of the famous university and of the Saxon survey (3 and 29). Zirkel and Credner are located here. The black pyroxenic quartz porphyry of Kleinsteinberg, close by, has attracted much attention. We are now on the edge of the great plain of North Germany, with nothing but sands washed by glacial drift from Scandinavia to the north of us, except where the Harz (the kingdom of Prof. Lossen) rises like an island (30*). On the way is Stassfurt, whose mines are a chemical storehouse for the world.

There are, of course, other points of great interest in Germany—Freiberg, in Saxony, the star of whose mining-school has passed the zenith. Those who make a pilgrimage to Baireuth are among fossiliferous beds (Allersdorff), and not far from the Fichtelgebirge. The Solenhofen lithographic stone and its fossils are unique, but geologic attention has not been recently concentrated on Würtemberg (26 and 27). We have not yet visited Norway, Russia, Spain, or France. Through the latter country Meunier will guide us (31*, 32, 6). In Paris we must part company, after, I hope, a pleasant tour. Don't fail to visit the Sorbonne and the Jardin des Plantes. All the lectures are public, and the Jardin des Plantes has also fine general collections.