15 
important of all: an examinee knows only too well that his 
examiner would most likely “pluck” him if he dared to express a 
contrary view ; secondly, the rocks that have been called Permian 
in Staffordshire and the areas adjacent are, undoubtedly, connected 
most intimately with the Carboniferous rocks, and lie below the 
Upper New Red or Trias unconformably. Upon these latter 
points no one who has examined the sections can entertain any 
doubt. But whether these red rocks below the Trias are the 
equivalents in time of the beds that form the downward con- 
tinuation of the Magnesian Limestone near Manchester or in 
Cumberland, is very doubtful indeed. There is a vast hiatus in 
_ the north-west of England between the true New Red Series and 
the Carboniferous Rocks, which must be represented, somewhere, 
by rocks of intermediate age; just as the equally-large unconformity 
in Westmorland between the Upper Old Red Sandstone and the 
Ludlow Rocks is elsewhere partly filled in by the Glengariff Grits. 
These Shropshire and Staffordshire Permians may well be partly 
uppermost Coal Measures, stained by infiltration from the true 
New Red, and partly a conformable series newer than these, but 
much older than any part of the New Red Series proper. That at 
all events, is what they appear to be to many others than myself. 
It would be well if the term Permian were restricted to rocks of 
this Salopian type, as it appears to be on the continent. This 
would enable us to employ the name Dyas or Lower New Red for 
the later-formed rocks, and we could then, consistently, draw the 
line between the Paleozoic rocks and those of Neozoic age at the 
top of the Permian as thus restricted, instead of taking it on an 
arbitrary horizon through the middle of an unbroken series of New 
Red Rocks. 
PALHONTOLOGICAL ASPECT OF THE SUBJECT. 
Asregardsthe bearing of palzeontological evidenceupon the general 
questions here raise], it seems to me that considerable misunder- 
standing yet exists. In regard to the plant remains, for example, 
it does not appear to be generally known that a large number of 
the vegetable remains supposed to have been obtained from rocks 
