52 REPORT—1843. 
situate at Riverstown, and crops out at the summit of an anticlinal elevation; the 
limestone and slate contain Encrinites, Turbinoliz, Spirifers, &c. Dr. Haines also 
exhibited some rare and undescribed fossils from the Cork limestone, and a slab of 
millstone grit from Kilrush, County Clare, containing some new and extraordinary 
impressions, apparently of a marine Annelid, slightly resembling a species of Myria- 
e figured in Mr. Murchison’s ‘ Silurian System,’ as occurring in the Cambrian 
slates. 
The “Permian System” as applied to Germany, with collateral observations ou 
similar Deposits in other countries ; showing that the Rothe-todte-liegende, 
Kupfer-schiefer, Zechstein, and the lower portion of the Bunter-sandstein, 
form one natural group, and constitute the Upper Member of the Paleo- 
zoic Rocks. By Roprerick Impry Murcuison, Gen. Sec. B.A. and Pres. 
of the Royal Geogr. Soc. 
When first proposed by Mr. Murchison*, the word Permian was intended to 
distinguish a natural group of deposits lying between the well-known carboniferous 
strata beneath and the less perfectly defined trias above it. The author at first sug- 
gested that the group (so designated, from the ancient kingdom of Permia which is 
exclusively occupied by it) should combine those deposits known under the names of 
Rothe-todte-liegende (lower new red of England), Kupfer-schiefer, and Zechstein, 
&c. (magnesian limestone, &c.). Subsequently, however, he was disposed to doubt 
whether it might not be more correct to class the rothe-todte-liegende with the coal- 
bearing deposits beneath it, than with the zechstein or magnesian limestone above 
it, in consequence of a belief on the part of some geologists, that the plants of the 
lower red sandstone which overlie the coal in many parts of England could not be 
distinguished from those of the coal-measures. Revisiting Hessia, Saxony, Silesia, 
the Thuringerwald and other parts of Germany, during this spring and summer, Mr. 
Murchison has obtained what he considers to be satisfactory proofs that the rothe- 
todte-liegende is part and parcel of the same natural group as the zechstein, and 
must therefore be considered a member of the Permian system. He has also con- 
vinced himself that a reform is called for in defining the lower limits of the “ Trias ” 
of foreign geologists ; and being confident that his researches, and those of his com- 
panions in Russia (M. de Verneuil and Count Keyserling), have afforded a key to 
the solution of this question, which had not been previously obtained, he takes this 
occasion of the meeting of the British Association to suggest, that the great deposit 
hitherto known under the synonymous terms of Bunter-sandstein, Grés bigarré, 
or new red sandstone, should be divided into two parts, the lower of which ought 
to be classed with the Permian, and separated from the trias, with which it has 
been merged. 
To prove the first of these positions, or that the rothe-todte-liegende is a part of the 
Permian group, Mr. Murchison cited the order of succession, and numerous sections in 
Germany, showing an uninterrupted sequence from the lower red conglomerate sand- 
stone and shale into the overlying zechstein. It was then stated, that this red de- 
posit, so copiously developed in Saxony, was there invariably separated in the 
clearest manner from the underlying coal-fields with which it is in contact, either by 
being positively discordant with or transgressive to the edges of such coal beds, or 
by occupying irregular and eroded depressions upon their surface. These facts have 
recently induced the Saxon geologists, including Professor Naumann, to disconnect 
the rothe-todte-liegende and the productive coal-measures, though formerly they 
were supposed to be connected. On the other hand, the rothe-todte-liegende, or 
lower new red, passes up into the zechstein. The question then is, can the plants 
of this lower red rock be distinguished as a whole from those of the subjacent coal- 
measures—plants being as yet the only organic remains found in these red sand- 
stones ? 
From his own observations in Saxony, and particularly from an inspection of the 
fossil plants collected, and in part described, by an active geologist Captain Gutbier 
of Zwickau, Mr. Murchison believes, that such a separation is indicated in nature. 
For, although the general character of the flora of the one deposit agrees with that 
of the other, it is a remarkable fact, that in the tracts around Zwickau, which are 
* See Letter from Moscow, September 1841, Phil. Mag. vol, xix. p, 419, 
